We are seeing an ever-increasing overlap between the real and virtual worlds, making this year’s World Wildlife Day theme more appropriate than ever.
The theme, ‘Connecting People and Planet: Exploring Digital Innovation in Wildlife Conservation’, is also a reminder that it is vital to use every tool available to protect and preserve our natural world.
Whether it be Artificial Intelligence-based solutions to identify and analyse online criminal activity, satellite imagery to identify illegal fishing, or drones to monitor illegal logging sites, technology has a role to play.
Ensuring investigators have the right tools and training to combat cyber-enabled wildlife crime, as well as in the field is essential.
Linked to crimes including money laundering, firearms smuggling, drug trafficking and corruption, wildlife crime poses a significant threat to the safety and security of communities, as well as their economic development.
In addition, climate change, habitat loss and alteration, and a lack of biodiversity can all make ecosystems unhealthy, putting wildlife at greater risk of disease.
INTERPOL helps to disrupt and dismantle the transnational organized criminal networks behind these crimes, helping to safeguard wider ecosystems with the ultimate aim of bringing about a greener future.