The illegal wildlife trade has increasingly moved online.   It’s very difficult to stop the smuggling there, due to anonymity and the vast number of for sale postings and the ease with which smugglers and sellers can just switch from one online site to another.

So it’s great news that WWF, TRAFFIC and IFAW are launching the Global Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking online.

The launch brings together technology, e-commerce and social media companies.   Law enforcement can’t do it all – so the technology businesses are a good place to start;  they can take down ads before they are even put up.

Animals are sold every day online, pushing many species towards extinction.   Rhino horn is carved into bowls and trinkets, and used in tradition medicine.  Ivory becomes statuettes, chopsticks, jewellery and more.

The launch of this initiative is very exciting.

Companies will address the various problems in tackling online wildlife trafficking in various ways, using their expertise.  Algorithms using maching learning to detect keyword and flag posts before they go up online will be a start.

WWF is helping to train companies’ teams to evaluate posts individually.  Users can become the ears and eyes of the company, and report anything which slips through the net.

Companies will share knowledge about trends and best practices to develop priorities and prevent loopholes.

It’s very heart-warming to see the way in which these technology giants are willing to help.  

The founding coalition are: Alibaba, Baidu, Baixing, e-Bay, Etsy, Facebook, Google, Huaxia Collection, Instagram, Kuaishou, Mall for Africa, Microsoft, Pininterest, Qyer, Ruby Lane, Shengshi Collection, Tencent, W3en Wan Tian Zia, Zhongyikupai, Zhuanzhuan and 58 Group.

WWF says, "The companies have committed to bringing down the online illegal trade in threatened species by 80 per cent by 2020."

A big well done to everyone for getting this off the ground.  Elephants, pangolins, rhinos, marine turtles, tigers - these are just a few endangered species who need our help

Your company can join in and help stop wildlife trafficking and help endangered species.   Find out how here

A project in a protected area in Laos established a connection between higher payments for wildlife sightings and improved protections for wildlife.

During the 4 year study, sightings of common wildlife went up by over 60%. 

The payments were funded by entry fees, paid by tourists, and were put into village development funds – these would finance projects such as school construction and healthcare. 

The project was carried out with the Wildlife Conservation Society and Foundations of Success.  It shows that linking cash payments with results such as the number of animals seen could be sufficient to discourage practices which are detrimental to wildlife such as hunting. 

This is an important direct link, and it’s believed to be a key to success.

Wildlife managers and scientists set up a scheme to pay villages on the edge of the protected are based on the species and number of animals that tourists saw when they visited the park.

The park is home to animals such as sambar deer, macaques and deer.   Unfortunately, a demand for wildlife parts, and access to weapons, led to a surge in illegal hunting even in this protected area.

The villages’ development funds got a set amount of money for every tourist visiting the park.  But if certain animals were spotted, the funds would receive a bonus.  So a civet or porcupine would get little more than $1 whilst a tiger spot would have meant $225.  (No tigers were spotted during the research period.)

If anyone from the communities was caught breaking the law, the community was penalised by the project. 

By the end of the study, there were 63% more sightings of the common animals (or evidence of them, such as their tracks) than at the start.

The research wanted to measure how effective incentives to protect wildlife could be at changing their behaviour.   The researchers estimate that it did.   The authors argue that the paper the project produced is laying out a method for measuring the impacts of other projects such as this.

Laos travel guide from Lonely Planet

The Half Earth Project has launched the first phrase of their rather incredible global biodiversity map.  It uses the latest science and technology to map thousands of species worldwide.   And it shows where future conservation efforts should be made to best care for our planet and ourselves.

The rate at which species are becoming extinct by human activity continues to increase to such an extent that it may eliminate half the species by the end of this century.  E.O.Wilson commented in the New York Times Sunday Review  on 3 March that we have to enlarge the area of earth devoted to the natural world enough to save the variety of life in it.

Conservation scientists widely agree that we should keep half the land and half the sea on the planet as wild and protected from human activity and intervention as possible, Wilson also states.

The Half Earth Project  is providing vital and urgent research, leadership and knowledge necessary to do just his.   It’s mapping the distribution of species worldwide to show where we can protected the greatest number of species.  Once it’s been possible to identify the blocks of land and sea can be strung together for greatest effect, tit will be possible to support these places, home to both wildlife and people.

It is hoped that the map for most terrestrial, marine and freshwater plant and animal species will be complete within 5 years.

E.O.Wilson Biodiveristy Foundation Board member Jeff Ubben and his wife Laurie are giving or have given $5 million to seed the second phrase.  

The map will give us the information required to make strong conservation investments.