Ecological Monitoring tools and

technologies

Wildlife Research and Monitoring

Desk

March 2023
 INTRODUCTION
• Different types of technologies are using for
conservation of wildlife resources.

• These days advanced cameras are important tools to

track natural behaviors of wild animals. Conservation
scientists confirmed that knowing how wild animals
behave in the wild is a key factor to understand extinction

• Advanced cameras are used to understand and collect

data on animal’s behavior. This technique is known as
camera trapping, and it reduces researcher’s time from sit
long hours, hoping the animals will come out
Cont.
• Drones are also using to detect poaching. Poaching
is major problem throughout Africa for the elephant
and rhino populations. Several organizations have
investigated with using drones to control poachers,
others even further to work with new technology
helping save wildlife.
• Recently, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is used to
promote the conservation of biodiversity, to improve
wildlife habitats, and to ensure ecological functions.
 Types of Conservation Technology
• Camera Traps
• UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles)- Drones
• GPS and VHF (Very High Frequency) Collaring –
- Wildlife movement
• Remote sensing with LIDAR – environmental
change
• Acoustic sensors - using sound to study wildlife
• SMART/CyberTracker
Cont.
• SMART is a new tool for increasing the effectiveness
of conservation law enforcement. It is a platform
consists of a set of software and analysis tools designed
to help conservationists manage and protect wildlife
and wild places. It can help standardize and simplify
data collection, analysis, and reporting. Moreover, it
simplifies for key information to get from the field to
decision-makers.
Cont.
• SMART supports a broad range of conservation
management activities, including biodiversity
conservation, law enforcement, tourism and visitor
management, natural resources use, intelligence,
and performance and threat level assessments.
• The Patrol configurable data model on SMART
data base was established to record illegal violation
in protected areas.
Cont.
• In Nech-Sar National Park, the major violations of
the park were previously identified and prioritized
into ten (10) categories. Illegal activities like
Charcoal production, Fire wood collection, Grass
cutting, Wood logs, Land clearing, Illegal fishing,
Settlement and Others.
• It’s designed to collect most relevant data that helps
the park management to make an informed decision,
effective utilization of resources, monitor change
through time and to have justified information on
areas that need more emphasize and effort.
Cont.
• As rangers are frontlines when it comes to law
enforcement in the national parks, the illegal
violation detection will mainly be done by them.
• Relevant trainings and follow ups will be provided;
however the main data base will be administered by
the park experts (ecologist) with an integration of
wild animals and habitat monitoring data at the
Protected Areas HQ.
Cont.
• There is a plan to establish at national level main
data base administration which will be administrated
by EWCA.
• All protected areas at the country level will provide
information to this data base system and networked to
it.
• Therefore, EWCA is working to establish the data
base system and fulfilling essential materials and
providing trainings for its workers to produce capable
and skilled manpower.