Wildlife Conservation
Operational Superiority
Wildlife trafficking and poaching continues to proliferate, spreading violence and funding more nefarious activities.
Networks involved in wildlife trafficking and poaching are also involved in the trafficking of drugs, humans, and weapons, as well as involvement in terrorism activities, making the research and disruption of these networks a high priority for many overlapping security objectives.
The Problem: Despite increasing interest in wildlife trafficking and poaching networks, civilian organizations involved in counter-trafficking campaigns are often poorly funded and organized, with a focus on response/treatment rather than action-oriented disruption. Well-meaning teams are too often narrowly trained and lack skills in information collection, network analysis and effective coordination and dissemination. With judicious application of training and technology, organizations can benefit from increased reporting efficiency, information sharing, and sense-making, yielding actionable information for use in targeting networks involved in wildlife trafficking and poaching.
Our Solution: We provide innovative solutions which integrate data, sensor feeds, analytical processes, intelligence, operations and support. These solutions provide the capability to collect, analyze, and share geo-referenced information using mobile devices and an internet portal with advanced analysis and visualization features. Every user is empowered with current information, incisive analysis, and shared situational awareness supporting effective, timely decision-making. The system was designed to operate across a broad mission space to enable and accelerate information–driven operations.
FIST
The Field Information Support Tool (FIST) employs a high-tempo interface, user tasking and tracking; and multi-backhaul communications via satellite and robust cellular protocols.
Ease of use is key for this rapidly evolving mission, which benefits from situational awareness, command and control and counter-networking methods. Teams that use local/indigenous field operators are further enabled by the multi-lingual capabilities FIST.
The FIST system integrates disparate sensor systems to support an integrated common operating picture. Examples of successful sensor integration are automatic license plate recognition (LPR), drones (UAV – unmanned aerial vehicles), biometrics and field-deployable intrusion sensors (UGS – unattended ground sensors). FIST can deploy at checkpoints, on patrol, at venue sites and other missions. Analysis of reports, historical data and sensor inputs provide forensic insight into past events as well as mission planning.
FIST facilitates counter-trafficking and other mission by effectively cataloguing, managing, and illuminating the various dimensions of illicit trafficking, terror, and other “dark networks”. Security agencies can aggregate and analyze data, then understand and act on emerging patterns and trends. This application of FIST leverages the science of Social Network Analysis (SNA) by automating the transformation of reports submitted by field personnel into social network charts, enabling the visualization and intuitive understanding of previously unknown and misunderstood organizations.