The Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge is an initiative of USAID,
in partnership with National Geographic, the Smithsonian Institution and
TRAFFIC. They have announced the winners of its competition for designing new,
innovative solutions to the most intractable issues in the fight against
wildlife trafficking.
Indian IT firm Binomial Solutions Private Limited (India)
has found the top slot for its innovative “e-Eye ® (Electronic Eye): Real-time
Anti-Poaching, Surveillance & Wildlife Tracking System.” Congrats. Give a
big hand to them, guys.
The other winners are
Bosque Antiguo (Mexico): “High Throughput STRs and Sequence
Genotyping as Forensic Tools for Species Protection”.
For the Fishes (U.S.): “Tank Watch--The Good Fish/Bad Fish
Tool for Saltwater Aquariums.”
Jennifer
Jacquet (U.S.): “Enforcement Gaps Interface.”
Kalev Hannes Leetaru (U.S.): “A Real-time Global Platform
for Mapping, Forecasting, and Network Assessment of Wildlife Crime.”
Mars Omega Partnership Ltd (U.K.):“The JIGZAW Information
Collaboration Project.”
National Whistleblowers Center (U.S.): “Secured Internet
Wildlife Crime Reporting System.”
New England Aquarium (U.S.): “Live Digital Invoices for Real
Time Data Analytics to Enhance Detection of Illegal Wildlife Trade.”
Paso Pacifico (U.S.): “The Trade of Endangered Sea Turtle
Eggs: Detecting and Monitoring Regional Transit Routes.”
Planet Indonesia (U.S.): “Enhancing Bird Market Monitoring
in Indonesia through Smartphone Technology.”
University of Leicester (U.K.): “Universal Species
Identification in the field by Rapid and Affordable Nanopore DNA Sequencing.”
University of Pretoria (South Africa): Internationalization
of RhODIS® and eRhODIS®
University of Technology Sydney (Australia): “Rapid Chemical
Odor Profiling for Frontline Identification of Illegal Wildlife Products.”
University of Washington (U.S.): High Throughput Methods for
Locating Source Populations in the Illegal Wildlife Trade.”
Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia (Indonesia):
“Conservation of threatened Indonesian Slow Lorises Using DNA-based Forensic
Methods to Tackle Trade.”
Zoological Society of London (U.K.): “Instant Detect-
Exposing the Movement of Poachers in Real Time.”
USAID will award USD10, 000 to each winner and provide
technical support to help them fine tune their solutions to stamp out illegal
trade in wildlife. Winners are eligible to compete for a Grand Prize of up to
USD500, 000.
