Fight against illegal wildlife trade boosted by new tech funding award

TRAFFIC is proud to announce new funding of £350,000 to upgrade research, data collection and IT infrastructure – critical to help law enforcement combat organised criminal activity.

The grant, awarded by the Wolfson Foundation, will integrate advanced automation technologies – including specialised media monitoring software, web scraping tools, and AI-powered data processing – as well as enabling an upgrade of data management and IT systems across the organisation.

The illegal trade in wild species – one of the most profitable criminal activities worldwide estimated to be worth $23 billion annually – fuels species extinction, environmental degradation, economic loss and corruption.

Embracing cutting-edge technologies will enable TRAFFIC to provide faster and more specific analysis on illegal wildlife trade to partners in government, law enforcement, conservation and policy.

Richard Scobey, TRAFFIC Executive Director, said: “For 50 years, TRAFFIC has been at the forefront of the fight against illegal wildlife trade—tracking trends, sharing insights, and helping partners to detect, intercept, and investigate criminal activity.

“We’re deeply grateful to the Wolfson Foundation for its visionary support in building the infrastructure needed for a nature-positive future.”

The work done by TRAFFIC to gather, sift, evaluate and publish data on global wildlife crime is hugely important in developing effective conservation action for endangered species. It is also labour-intensive and costly, and we are delighted to support the charity to acquire automated technologies which will streamline these processes.” 

Paul Ramsbottom, Chief Executive, the Wolfson Foundation

Amongst other things, the money will support use of AI to further develop the Wildlife Trade Portal – a unique open access database of wildlife trade seizures, including country location, species, product type, transport routes and methods, criminal justice outcomes and even connections to corruption.  Data from this portal is used by crime fighting agencies to detect trends and patterns, as well as researchers and journalists.

Wildlife crime uses the same networks and routes as other forms of organised crime, such as humans, drugs and weapons, so understanding what is happening and where, is a critical step in tackling the international criminal gangs behind all these activities.

The Wolfson Foundation funding will also help deliver a new public outreach programme, targeting school children and students, to improve understanding of issues around the trade in wild species, and its impact on biodiversity.

This will involve working with the University of Cambridge Museum of Zoology to create a ‘Wildlife Trade Trail’ for school children visiting the museum. TRAFFIC will also partner with the Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, to deliver a programme of guest lectures and seminars for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Zoology, Ecology and Conservation.