Meet the Finalists in North America
Canada
LifeScanner - Wildlife
The LifeScanner solution provides an integrated wet-lab and informatics solution for DNA-based identification of biological samples, management of chain of custody, and seamless sharing of data. This solution, which is based on ten years of DNA research, consists of a sampling kit, a mobile app, and a distributed laboratory information management system.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence / Data
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
United States
Passive acoustic monitoring and automated detection of shark finning boats off Cocos Island
The University of Washington’s Applied Physics Lab seeks to use an acoustic detection system to alert park rangers in Costa Rica’s Cocos Island to the illegal fishing of sharks. The solution would utilize existing technology for recording acoustic data and combine it with real-time sensors to alert park rangers and direct their swift action toward the area of warning.
Problem Area: Detect Transit Routes: Monitoring and Detection
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
Combining Landscape Genomics and Connectivity to Protect Vulnerable Wildlife in Central Africa
The Center for Tropical Research seeks to use recently developed next-generation sequencing methods combined with a powerful new approach for assigning individuals to precise geographic locations to identify and track populations of chimpanzees, pangolins, and hornbills in Central Africa. This will allow determination of populations most at risk from wildlife crime and likely transit routes.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence / Data
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
Low cost sensor mesh for real time alerting and rapid response
This effort seeks to develop a very low-cost text messaging and sensor mesh network to detect gunshots, chainsaws, and motorcycles over large, remote areas in real-time, and tightly integrate it with open-sourced, long-range unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) tasking capability for alert-driven reconnaissance. Additionally, it seeks to develop sensors to upload large amounts of in-situ data (photos, high fidelity audio and video) by scheduled UAV harvesting, and a "droney express" relay mechanism for data distribution.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence/Data
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
Network for Environmental Crimes Targeting (NECTAR)
Hidden in millions of transactions of each nation's import and export data are complex patterns that describe wildlife crimes. Working closely for over two decades with several U.S. law enforcement agencies, Data Mining International, Inc. has pioneered and deployed software tools and methodologies that help investigators uncover such patterns.
Problem Area: Tackle Corruption
Stage of Innovation: Scaling
Satellite Imagery and Geospatial Predictive Analytics to address Wildlife Trafficking
DigitalGlobe seeks to combine its constellation of very high resolution satellites with its advanced predictive geospatial analytic methodology to assist park rangers and the wildlife protection community in optimizing wildlife trafficking detection, monitoring, and enforcement resources. DigitalGlobe’s approach to predictive geospatial analysis can identify the most likely areas where poaching activity is taking place, and highlight the routes that will most likely be used to transport illegal materials.
Problem Area: Detect Transit Routes: Prediction of future
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
Tank Watch -- The Good Fish/Bad Fish Tool for Saltwater Aquariums
Cyanide use is illegal and widespread in the capture of tens of millions of coral reef fish for the global marine aquarium trade. Tank Watch – The Good Fish/Bad Fish Tool for Saltwater Aquariums is a mobile app providing global consumers the ability to easily identify popular aquarium species and distinguish those potentially bred in captivity from those that were wild-caught using cyanide or other harmful means.
Problem Area: Reduce Consumer Demand: Raising Consumer Awareness
Stage of Innovation: Scaling
Enforcement Gaps Interface
This solution seeks to identify gaps in enforcement in the internet wildlife trade by building a computational model to mine more than 100 sites for all CITES Appendix I listed fauna. It also proposes to develop an interface that will allow enforcement agencies to easily access and interpret data from this model.
Problem Area: Detect Transit Routes: Monitoring and Detection
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
A Realtime Global Platform for Mapping, Forecasting, and Network Assessment of Wildlife Crime
This platform will make use of the Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone (GDELT) project to monitor, translate, and codify global news reporting of wildlife crime in 65 languages in real-time. A live map will visualize the current state of wildlife crime worldwide, highlighting emerging trends and breaking situations, identifying key influencers and transport corridors, and recommending possible interventions through scenario modeling.
Problem Area: Detect Transit Routes: Monitoring and Detection
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
Legal Atlas Toolkit on Wildlife Trade Law
Legal Atlas is an online legal intelligence platform that uses a combination of information technologies to analyze legislation on specialized topics in order to expose gaps in law, including in wildlife trade legislation. It recognizes that standard legal libraries do not extract, compare or map key data in the law, hindering legal and non-legal professionals in their efforts to assess, communicate, and advocate for effective reform and implementation.
Problem Area: Tackle Corruption
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
Secured Internet Wildlife Crime Reporting System
This solution seeks to create a computer system to permit whistleblowers to safely communicate their allegations to appropriate authorities. This technological solution would address a number of complex programming issues, including maximum online security, a mechanism to take in claims anonymously and track them, and the ability to have rapid, multilingual online presentations, especially geared toward the language that local sources will speak.
Problem Area: Tackle Corruption
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
Live digital invoices for real-time data analytics to enhance detection of illegal wildlife trade
This solution seeks to improve the identification of illegal trade by developing a real-time data system that digitizes invoices and automatically checks species identity and origin. This solution also involves creating a tablet-based platform linking species identification to invoices in order to enable forensic probability-based assessments, as well as cross referencing import and export documents to identify illegal trade.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence / Data
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
Tracking Poachers with Satellite-enabled Smart Wildlife Camera Traps
NexGen Space LLC seeks to use low-cost nanosatellite machine-to-machine (M2M) communications to enable large-scale deployment of smart wildlife camera traps. These camera traps can notify rangers of poacher activity, capture photographic evidence for use in legal proceedings, and enable data analytics to identify hotspots and traffic routes at a much lower cost compared to current satellite real-time systems.
Problem Area: Detect Transit Routes: Monitoring and Detection
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
The Trade of Endangered Sea Turtle Eggs: Detecting and Monitoring Regional Transit Routes
Little is known about the transit routes and final destinations of restricted sea turtle products. Paso Pacifico seeks to develop a solution to monitor and map the movement of illegal sea turtle parts and products in order to provide vital information to government authorities and civil society for combating the illegal egg trade.
Problem Area: Detect Transit Routes: Wildlife Trafficking over the Internet
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
Enhancing Bird Market Monitoring in Indonesia through Smart Phone Technology
This solution seeks to create a phone application that can easily and inconspicuously be used to collect data in bird markets. Users can open images to identify species and input price, volume, and place of origin data, while they appear to be simply sending a text message.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence / Data
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
Using DNA based forensic techniques to address wildlife trafficking at a regional scale.
This solution seeks to improve DNA based forensic analysis by training front-line staff to collect and store samples correctly, standardizing lab-processing and data extraction, training members of participating labs in genetic techniques, and building a regional database for DNA data across the region. This reference database will accelerate the determination of the country and region of origin from any confiscated wildlife sample and map future hot-spots.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence / Data
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
High throughput methods for locating source populations in the illegal wildlife trade
This solution seeks to pinpoint the source of wildlife seizures by using a panel of informative single nucleotide polymorphisms to distinguish populations, detection dogs to locate samples, and assignment software to identify geographic origin. Having demonstrated the power of this method with large seizures of ivory, the University of Washington proposes developing this solution for pangolins.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence / Data
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept
TrailGuards - concealed smart cameras along routes used by poachers with real-time communication
TrailGuards seeks to place concealed smart cameras along routes known to be used by poachers. When the cameras are triggered, they automatically determine if a human is in the image and transmit it to the internet via the global system for mobile communication (GSM) or satellite. At this point, it is logged and immediately transmitted to a list of recipients, including multiple, independent organizations.
Problem Area: Detect Transit Routes: Monitoring and Detection
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
Ground-truthing anti-poaching response through SMART-enabled sensors
The SMART Partnership's solution, submitted by the Wildlife Conservation Society, will enable protected area managers with integrated, real-time access to information through the development of four reference integrations for field sensors for the Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) software platform. This will transform the way in which anti-poaching operations are coordinated and managed, improving both the speed and effectiveness of law enforcement's response to poaching.
Problem Area: Tackle Corruption
Stage of Innovation: Scaling
Making ivory trade socially unacceptable in Thailand
WWF and United for Wildlife seek to use insight from consumer research in Thailand to undermine motivations for buying ivory, and intend to amplify their reach through innovative digital tools. A suite of approaches will exploit motivations for purchasing illegal wildlife gained from quantitative and qualitative research, raise awareness of new legal consequences for the ivory trade, and use results from long-term monitoring of ivory markets to determine the best locations for message delivery.
Problem Area: Reduce Consumer Demand: Raising Consumer Awareness
Stage of Innovation: Product Development
Mexico
The sequence genotyping and high throughput sequences as forensic tools for the species protection
This solution seeks to apply massive next generation sequencing to build a database containing DNA profiles and mitochondrial barcodes for three species subject to illegal trafficking in Mexico and internationally. A web portal will also be developed that allows access to the database by environmental authorities to prosecute criminals.
Problem Area: Strengthen Forensic Evidence: Collection of Forensic Evidence / Data
Stage of Innovation: Proof of Concept