WASHINGTON, D.C. - The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and its partners have announced 16 prize winners under the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. USAID will award $10,000 to each winner and provide technical support to help them advance their solutions to stamp out illegal trade in wildlife. Winners are eligible to compete for one of four Grand Prizes worth as much as $500,000. USAID will use Grand Prizes to target and invest in the most promising solutions.
 

The Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge is an initiative of USAID, in partnership with National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution, and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network. Launched in 2014, the Challenge is finding new, innovative solutions to the most intractable issues in the fight against wildlife trafficking. The program represents one component of USAID's efforts to support the National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking.

"Wildlife trafficking not only threatens to wipe out iconic animals such as elephants and rhinoceroses, it is also devastating communities worldwide through associated criminality, violence and theft. Through this program, we are bringing in new ideas and engaging with new audiences to halt the devastation before it is too late,"  said Cynthia Gill, Director of USAID's Forestry and Biodiversity Office.

Selected out of a pool of 300 applicants from 52 countries, prize winners are individuals, universities, nonprofits, and corporations from Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, and the Americas. Winning innovations include a variety of solutions at all stages of innovation that address four critical issues: detecting and predicting transit routes; strengthening forensic evidence; reducing consumer demand and addressing corruption.  

• Binomial Solutions Private Limited (India): "e-Eye ® (Electronic Eye): Real-time Anti-Poaching , Surveillance & Wildlife Tracking System."
  • e-Eye® is an innovative combination of hardware and software that provides around-the-clock, all weather 'live feed' wildlife surveillance. e-Eye will help to secure parks and other protected areas by enabling: surveillance of inaccessible areas; trend analysis; intrusion detection; patrol management; and corruption prevention.
• Bosque Antiguo (Mexico): "High Throughput STRs and Sequence Genotyping as Forensic Tools for Species Protection."
  • Bosque Antiguo plans to create highly accurate forensic tools that can identify the Scarlet Macaw, the Military Macaw, and the Red-Eyed Tree Frog at both the individual and species level in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and Costa Rica. These tools will be used to provide evidence to prosecute criminals.
• For the Fishes (United States): "Tank Watch--The Good Fish/Bad Fish Tool for Saltwater Aquariums."
  • Tank Watch is a mobile app that enables global consumers to easily identify popular aquarium species and distinguish those potentially bred in captivity and thus coral-reef friendly from those definitely wild-caught, possibly with cyanide or other harmful practices. This solution aims to reduce demand by developing consumer awareness.
• Jennifer Jacquet (United States): "Enforcement Gaps Interface."
  • Enforcement Gaps Interface (EGI) uses data science on a massive scale to identify gaps in enforcement in the internet wildlife trade.  Over the next year, the EGI team will build and use a computational model that mines nearly a hundred commercial sites for CITES Appendix I-listed fauna (699 species of protected wildlife). Law enforcement will be able to access and analyze the resulting data via a password-protected interface.
• Kalev Hannes Leetaru (United States): "A Real-time Global Platform for Mapping, Forecasting, and Network Assessment of Wildlife Crime."
  • The Realtime Global Platform for Mapping, Forecasting, and Network Assessment of Wildlife Crime will use the GDELT Project, which monitors, codifies, and translates global news reporting, to track media reports of wildlife crime in 65 languages in real time. The platform will include a live map that visualizes the current state of wildlife crime worldwide, highlights emerging trends and breaking situations to allow real time intervention, and identifies key influencers and transport corridors and their vulnerabilities.
• Mars Omega Partnership Ltd (United Kingdom):"The JIGZAW Information Collaboration Project."
  • JIGZAW is a web-based application designed to store, process, and share information about any aspect of the illegal wildlife trade including actors, methods, and trafficking routes. This solution is designed to help conservancies and other protected areas process information and make appropriate decisions, and has been successfully implemented in Kenya to capture information about elephant and rhino poaching.
• National Whistleblowers Center (United States): "Secured Internet Wildlife Crime Reporting System."
  • The National Whistleblowers Center (NWC) plans to create a powerful worldwide, multilingual online platform for educating stakeholders and whistleblowers about wildlife whistleblower legislation. The solution will enable whistleblowers to confidentially access information about their rights, and offer them a secure and confidential reporting process, including legal counsel.
• New England Aquarium (United States): "Live Digital Invoices for Real Time Data Analytics to Enhance Detection of Illegal Wildlife Trade."
  • The New England Aquarium (NEAq) has developed a system that digitizes wildlife trade invoices in real time, checks reported species against lists of illegal wildlife, and analyzes shipping values like size and weight to find discrepancies between reported and real cargoes. NEAq plans to expand this system by creating a tablet-based platform linking species identification to invoices.
• Paso Pacifico (United States): "The Trade of Endangered Sea Turtle Eggs: Detecting and Monitoring Regional Transit Routes."  
  • Paso Pacifico plans to construct artificial sea turtle eggs that contain covert GSM-GPS tracking devices and forensic markers. These will be placed in nests at high risk of poaching. Once the eggs are poached, their movement can be monitored and mapped, revealing trafficking routes.
• Planet Indonesia (United States): "Enhancing Bird Market Monitoring in Indonesia through Smartphone Technology."
  • Planet Indonesia, a nonprofit, plans to create a mobile app that enables users to easily and inconspicuously collect data in Indonesian bird markets. While pretending to send a text, users can collect standardized data on species, price, and origin, and even view images to identify bird species. Collected data will be stored in a central database for access by appropriate parties.
• University of Leicester (United Kingdom): "Universal Species Identification in the field by Rapid and Affordable Nanopore DNA Sequencing."
  • The University of Leicester aims to pilot a hand-held nanopore DNA sequencer. The project's goal is to fully automate DNA sequencing and species identification at a crime scene in approximately one hour rather than days.
• University of Pretoria (South Africa): Internationalization of RhODIS®  and eRhODIS®
  • The DNA- and IT-based Rhino DNA Indexing System (RhODIS®) and Electronic Rhino DNA Indexing System (eRhODISTM) provide forensic tracing for African rhinoceroses and their parts (including horns), linking parts back to source animals and criminals to specific crimes. The project aims to increase its impact through development and validation of an internationally available rhinoceros nuclear DNA analysis kit.
• University of Technology Sydney (Australia): "Rapid Chemical Odor Profiling for Frontline Identification of Illegal Wildlife Products."
  • The University of Technology Sydney (UTS) plans to develop a portable electronic 'nose' that uses smell 'fingerprints' to identify wildlife and wildlife parts on-site and determine their origin. Since it can be used in the field, the solution could help authorities prosecute offenders and trace trafficking routes.
• University of Washington (U.S.):  High Throughput Methods for Locating Source Populations in the Illegal Wildlife Trade."
  • The University of Washington's solution combines genetic analysis, detector dogs, and assignment software to identify the geographic origin of seized pangolins and alert law enforcement to the most heavily poached populations.
• Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (Indonesia): "Conservation of Threatened Indonesian Slow Lorises Using DNA-based Forensic Methods to Tackle Trade."
  • YIARI aims to build a genetic database for slow lorises, which can be used to identify species and geographic origin of confiscated animals, map trade and poaching hotspots, provide information in criminal cases, and provide recommendations to the Indonesian government to update laws protecting this genus.
• Zoological Society of London (United Kingdom): "Instant Detect- Exposing the Movement of Poachers in Real Time."
  • Instant Detect comprises a range of military grade sensors that use satellite technology to enable data transfer in near real time. Instant Detect hopes to help authorities immediately identify illegal activity such as poaching and smuggling in protected areas both on land and at sea.