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Preemptive Anti-Poaching

Posted by: admin    Tags:      Posted date:  September 7, 2012  |  23 Comments


 

Preemptive Anti-Poaching Technology

Catching the poacher before he kills

Technology, as a tool, is an incredibly powerful lever. It is what has enabled one ape – us - to reach a population of 7 billion, astronomically exceeding all of our cousin apes and thus becoming the greatest threat to their – and our – continuance on this planet.

 

One might wish that the evolution of our technological abilities had stopped at our cousin’s termite-fishing and nut-cracking level. But it is too late. The genie has been uncorked. We need to find ways of harnessing the power technology to  save rather than plunder the planet  and the other earthlings inhabiting it.

 

Poachers are working faster than we have been. We are loosing.

The problem with much of anti-poaching today is that it  reacts after the damage has been done.  Container loads of animal parts can be recovered  - but the lives lost can never be recovered. The parts, like Humpty-Dumpty, can never be put back together again.

We can not help but  lose playing a game by only reacting after the fact.  We need to detect threats in advance so that we can intercede before lives are irreversibly lost.  Not solving wildlife crimes – but preventing them has to be the priority.

Poaching is a PREVENTABLE crime – IF enough advance warning is received from an early detection of human intrusion with the intention of poaching.

TrailGuards are “invisble eyes” – concealed cameras – watching trails for poachers –  connected wirelessly  to a “central nervous system” – the internet – completing  a “reflex arc” back to the “effectors” – the rangers – to remove the threat – the poachers – BEFORE the killing happens.

TrailGuards can identify wildlife crime – before it happens – so that it never happens.



 




 A TrailGuard “Trap” for poachers


We are not here to be stewards of the planet – the planet would have been quite fine without us. What we need to become are stewards of ourselves.


Can this – or any technology – save the other great apes?  No – not alone.  And as a technologist, I am very worried by the many that have a “faith” that “somehow” technology can magically fix anything – it can’t.  The only hope lies in those  humans who would never be willing to surrender to the poachers and plunderers of our common planet.


 


 


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23 Comments for Preemptive Anti-Poaching



					   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			jessie Williams
      		
Steve,

I have just been reviewing the modifications to your Trailguard that you sent to me.  I continue to be impressed with the thoroughness of your concept and design.  This system will serve anti-poaching efforts brilliantly.  The fact that poachers can be detected and deterred electronically before they kill is powerful.   You really have a well thought out system.


I am curious about one thing.  When human activity in protected areas occurs, the cameras are triggered, and the image is then sent along with an alarm to authorities for a quick response before killing occurs.   The fact that detection and signally to authorities all occurs without detection by the intruders is good in that the chances for apprehension (before killing) is high.   The word will spread quickly that even if poachers escape authorities in the short run, authorities will still have photographic evidence to direct future pursuit and prosecution.


I am wondering if it makes sense to add warnings in some cases.  That is a voice message alerting the intruder that their photograph has been captured and authorities are on the way.  I can see how this may go even further to discourage completion of criminal activity since the intruders will recognize that they have been detected and that their apprehension is inevitable.


At any rate, I look forward to seeing this in the field.  We are loosing the war on poaching.  We need to bring anti-poaching efforts into the 21st century.  Thank you for your dedication for all these years in bringing this technology forward.  Best of luck. 


Jessie Williams, Ph.D.

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Karyl
      		
Great idea, Steve!  I like Jesse’s added suggestion of a verbal warning to the culprits, which may improve the system’s efficacy over the long run. Poachers also need to be punished severely enough to serve as a deterrent to others. And countries responsible for the “demand” for animal parts should be held accountable and reeducated.

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			admin
      		
Thanks for the comments, Jessie and Karyl.  An immediate, audiable alarm – voice or siren – intended to scare off the poachers – does exist as one varient of the TrailGuard sytem. The “standard” TrailGuard system sends a “silent” alarm by design. The idea being that an early detection of poachers – but one in which the poachers were unaware they had been detected – as they first entered an area would give time for a “rapid response team” of rangers to head off the unsuspecting poachers before they reached their intended hunting area, lay an ambush for and capture the poachers. But clearly in many areas such a “rapid response team” does not exist (yet) and the dispatched ranger force might arrive in the area only after poachers had killed animals. 


The primary goal of the TrailGuard system is not capturing poachers but, much more importantly, saving animals. So even though setting off an alarm alerting the poachers that they had been detected would decrease the likelyhood that they would be captured, it might, in certain cases, be the best choice for protecting the animals.  (Just as with your car alarm system YOU care much more that the thieves are detered than that the police are ultimately able to apprehed the theives)


The best example I can think of where an an immediate audiable alarm –  car or burlger alarm style – would be the best choice is Dzanga-Sanga Bai in the Central African Republic. It is a clearing in the dense forest where a 100 forest elephants might be found at one time. If poachers were to be detected only once they reached the clearing, an immediate tranmisson of that imformation would be to no avail as the poachers would have time to massacre  all the elephants. But a real-time alarm system – with picture-positive threat identification – would permit an operator to remotely trigger a system of sierns – and smoke grenades – in the clearning which would disperse the elephants before the poachers could slaughter them. Another example of specific point locations to be defended are cavity-nesting birds, such as parrots, who are “sitting ducks” for poachers during nesting season. 


Whether an audible alarm would deter the poachers would depend on how the poachers perceive the threat of having been detected. If the poachers are detected where they know it would take a very long time for for rangers to reach them, it might not be an effective enough deterent. Beacuse of that limitation, and since the images will provide real-time, “photographic evidence” that it was indeed poachers, we are looking at the possiblity of remotely triggering other active, non-lethal deterrents which are being developed for and deployed in other enforcement areas. 


We want a forest that is friendly to those animals that belong there and a forest that is very hostile to those who would harm her.

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Jessie Williams
      		
I know you mentioned some other place about how the system holds everyone accountable, including the response team.  That seems important given that we know that sometimes the poachers are actually employed by the parks.  Can you explain how the Trailguard system can assure accountability in response?

      		


      	

    


    
   
	
    
		
    
         	      	
    
      

      	
    
						
			admin
      		
    The TrailGuard system assumes the folks manning the cameras and alarms are NOT honest – the safe assumption. The transmission of images is all managed and monitored without human control. All information flows through the internet, and is databased in the US even before it reaches back to the park department. The warden knows that when he receives an image, that his eyes are not the only eyes looking at the image. Funding agencies and other oversight organizations with a need to know will have the same information and be effectively looking over the warden’s shoulders – preventing the warden from “overlooking” the incident and instead forcing him to take the appropriate actions. The TrailGuard system is designed to provide surveillance of BOTH poachers and those who are supposed to deal with poachers – as a means of “enforcing enforcement”.
    
See also an earlier post, Watching the Watchers and some sections of the FAQ
    
      		
    

      	
    
    
    




   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			jessie Williams
      		
And I did not mean to say that parks intentionally employ poachers.  What I  meant to say is that occasionally a park employee gets seduced over to the dark side, of course without the knowledge of the park.  Thus, we need a system that watches everyone.

      		


      	

    


    
   
	
    
		
    
         	      	
    
      

      	
    
						
			Boog
      		
    None can doubt the veracity of this acritle.
    
      		
    

      	
    
    
    




   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Paul R. Reillo, Ph.D.
      		
Steve–


Fantastic technology…. I cannot thank you enough on behalf of wildlife and wild places everywhere.  Only the brilliant human can foil the desperate, greedy, consumptive human depleting Earth’s biodiversity.  In these desperate times, yours is a solution that is tangible, real-time, cost-effective and easily evaluated.  Every protected area needs a system like this, and every bioreserve manager and conservation coordinator needs to be well-versed in deploying the system (and expanding it) as the conservation landscape changes.  Poaching devastates biological communities and accelerates the extinction vortex for many critical species.  Your technology intervenes with precisely the outputs needed– real-time images, verifiable data and reliability– all of which are critical for bringing culprits to justice and providing an effective, long-term deterrent .  


Please keep me posted on your progress, as all of us here at RSCF wish you the very best and the utmost success in securing funds to expand your efforts.  Your trailguard technology ranks #1 on the conservation priority list, and deserves generous financial support from every serious conservation sponsor.  


Best regards,


Paul R. Reillo, Ph.D., Director

Rare Species Conservatory Foundation

http://www.rarespecies.org

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Jude Price
      		
Steve, your statement “We are not here to be stewards of the planet – the planet would have been quite fine without us. What we need to become are stewards of ourselves.” Says it all, the grand delusion that we are somehow “Above nature” needs to be throughly examined and deconstructed. We might be a very clever species, we are the most productive, elaborative and greatest adapter of environment. We have imagined and created and invented far more than other animals – but that doesn’t inherently make us more deserving of Earth. 


Having just read the Brian Christy expose on Blood Ivory: Ivory Worship here: http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/10/ivory/christy-text


And knowing now that what fuels the killing frenzy isn’t just China’s lust for Ivory – but the Philippine Catholics  and the Thailand Buddhists – even the vatican sells Ivory. We are ramped up in the grandest Delusion of them all – and the irony of the matter is people ‘pray’ to these objects for a better life. Superstition, greed and delusion is a very powerful mixture. 


Your work – pre-emptive anti-poaching, the surveillance equipment to STOP the killing before it happens is brilliant – I do hope Government bodies and NGO’s active (and serious) about protection will take this up. “God” knows we need to.

      		


      	

    


    
   
	
    
		
    
         	      	
    
      

      	
    
						
			admin
      		
    Brain Christy’s article was a real “Revelation” that elephants are being “cruxified” for their ivory. Please, people, realize that this is the one world, the only world you will ever have – and its going fast – and by your hands.  They say “you don’t know what you have till its gone” but I do – you do too – so why don’t they?
    
      		
    

      	
    
    
    




   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Lea Hall, Ph.D.
      		
Steve, this idea makes so much sense. I agree with Jessie that warning signs could amplify the deterrent power of the system. Is there a way to publicize the cases of poachers caught by the system? Perhaps through local radio or other news media? Where do poachers get their information? I commend your work and look forward to a shift from crimes and punishments to prevention and long life for the great apes.

      		


      	

    


    
   
	
    
		
    
         	      	
    
      

      	
    
						
			admin
      		
    Not prosecuting poachers – not apprehending poachers – but deterring poaching is the best deal for everyone – humans and wildlife. Invisible “Eyes” in the forest – watching will help acheive that.
    
Some people will do whatever they think they can get away with. And in remote wilderness areas they can get away with a lot without fear of being detected by authorities. But poacher’s  perception that they can do their deeds unobserved will change when they learn that there are invisible eyes in the forest watching them and are able to immediately send their  picture to authorities. In the poachers mind, any and every tree could be watching him. We don’t want to have to go out and catch poachers – what we want is to deter someone from entering a protected area intent on poaching.
    
Publicising the existance of the system is very important. To be an effective deterrent all potential poachers much become aware that if they go into a forest searching for animals to kill there will be other “eyes” searching for them. Any arrests too would be publicized extensively as an example. And arrest rates should drop as would-be poachers look to less risky work.
    
      		
    

      	
    
    
    

      
   
	
      
		
      
         	      	
      
      

      	
      
						
			Wesam
      		
      It’s quite a challenge for a stturap, we can do this when we have one huge space and huge number of trees. I will put this system to test with our first Corporate forest. But i’m not sure if we can try with cams,wifis and specially the pipes. There are thousands of unpunishable thieves around.Open source should help me with the role play.The next thing would be keep the people interested. Doing this with animals would be great. But with trees are slow for ones lifetime and with not much change people leave !!!! Need more practical changes to the plan.
      
      		
      

      	
      
    
      


    

   
	
    
		
    
         	      	
    
      

      	
    
						
			Dell
      		
    I thank you humbly for sahrnig your wisdom JJWY
    
      		
    

      	
    
    
    




   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Darryl Saffer
      		
Steve, this is an important and necessary step in protecting these magnificent animals where they live. I think the addition of alarms and warnings would strengthen the effectiveness. While we all need to work very hard at eliminating the demand and raising awareness, the slaughter must be stopped to protect the precious few of these creatures.

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			admin
      		
In brief summary, they are “eyes in the forest” – concealed “smart” camera traps along trails used by poachers to access protected areas. Called “TrailGuards” they are “smart” in that after capturing an image, the camera analyzes the image to determine if it is likely a human – and therfore a possible poacher. And if so, is able to, like ET, “phone home” sending the image immediately via a cell or sat internet link to where humans can make the final decision before sending out a rapid response team to hunt the poachers.


This is not speculative technology. It has been under continual development for the last decade and is now ready for deployment anywhere in the world.

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Michelle McAlister
      		
Great idea that gets right to the heart of the action, before it has a chance to begin. This should be deployed in all forests everywhere. I look forward to statistics and results from this tech.

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			chi monica bih, brigade officer in the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Anti poaching unit, Yaounde, Cameroon
      		
Ho! our rich living diversities of animals that suffer from the hands ofthe  wicket illegal hunters. Who kill not because they are hungry but because of the fast cash which will enrich  illegal dealers of wildlife trafickers. It is true these animals suffer

I am doing my best to protect these wild animals in my little means; as a wildlife specialist, and as a brigade officer; by sensitizing the population, some times i seized the illegal captured animals, even sanctionned the defaulters if need be. Thank God my Gov’t is not sleeping.

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Help Save Apes in Africa | Louisa Graves
      		
[...] Catching the Poacher Before They Kill   Here is Steve’s site if you want more info:   http://wildlandsecurity.org/2012/09/preemptive-anti-poaching/   Last date to vote is 9/30. Thanks for your time and PLEASE share this with others you know. [...]

      		


      	

    


    
   
	
    
		
    
         	      	
    
      

      	
    
						
			Martine
      		
    Hmm that’s a pretty inieserttng idea, this will bring more customer interactions. But we have planted in very diverse regions, let me check if we can come up with a solution. Role playing is something that will make our site more impressive. Thanks for the idea !!!BTW i’m not sure if Poacher can be stopped. I once met one the guys in a village close to western ghats.The forest officials themselves are so close to these villages ( they r usually part of the villages). They themselves go hunting,share the hunt n carry it home !!!! With a such a situation I don’t think any tech can save wild.I fear we will end up making jurassic park 12 with tigers n deers.
    
      		
    

      	
    
    
    




   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			MV, India
      		
Steve, 


You have posted very effective blog. Nice work. Keep it UP.


MV

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			Robbie Vaughn
      		
All of the concepts presented here are excellent, but I do favor yours the most. I’ve watched far too many videos of orphaned orangutans, chimpanzees and gorillas and my heart aches with every one of them. The lives that will be saved will thank you!

      		


      	

    


   
	

		

         	      	

      

      	

						
			authentic jordans
      		
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