From 1 to 3 March the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs hosted an international conference on wildlife. A broad range of stakeholders were invited to accelerate action against wildlife crime. Sensing Clues was there!
The theme of the conference was: Action, or game over! We choose ACTION! Several “Wildlife deals” were made.
First of all we are honoured to have been invited by the Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife of Sri Lanka to explore the strengths of our sensor systems to protect their wildlife from poachers. A visit will be organised to demonstrate our tools in the field and to discuss tactical deployment.
We are also very much honoured to have been invited by the Ambassador of Bangladesh to help them protecting tigers in the Sundarbans mangrove forests. Field visits will be organised to ensure that our plans build on their existing expertise and suite their unique local requirements.
We concluded a Wildlife Deal with Smart Parks, a research project led by the Resource Ecology Group of Wagening University and a reserve in South Africa. The project aims at detecting poachers through the interpretation of (real-time) geospatial behaviour of herbivores (prey). Through our extensive knowledge of secure networks, cloud computing, and mesh-networks in low- or no-tech environments, Sensing Clues aims at preparing a future-proof base for these powerful tools.
Another Wildlife Deal was made with NSCR and the African Parks Network. As Andrew Lemieux of NSCR said: “Reporting is dead, we need prevention briefings based on data analysis.”. We explore opportunities to create a Wildlife Crime Analyst Toolbox (Wild CAT). Sensing Clues supports this project through the design of dummy-proof graphical user interfaces, and the provision of private and secure big-data analytics hosting services.
Other deals are in the making with amongst others NFI and the Netherlands Consulate in Nepal. We look back at a fruitful conference. It’s good to see and feel how individual strengths are being united against wildlife crime! Follow us on twitter and Facebook to be kept up to date about our progress and the successes we achieve in turning wild spaces into safe havens!