Wildlife Conservation Projects

  • Wildlife Crime Technology Project

    Over four and a half years, the Google.org-funded Wildlife Crime Technology Project (WCTP) provided WWF a platform to innovate and test a number of innovative technologies, many of which have the potential to change the course of the global fight against wildlife crime. 

    Group of people stand around an open jeep looking at a hand-held device with keyboard
  • Crime Convergence:  Natural Resource Exploitation and Transnational Organized Crime

    Illegal exploitation of natural resources and wildlife including wildlife trafficking, and crimes associated with logging, mining, fishing, land conversion, and others are all crimes that threaten ecosystems, contribute to climate change, worsen food and economic security, and undermine global efforts to promote sustainability and conservation. Together, the illegal trade or trafficking in natural resources, is the third-largest criminal sector worldwide, generating between USD 110 to 280 billion annually. Despite their staggering scale and impact, these crimes are often mischaracterized as primarily conservation issues, when in reality, they are deeply connected to the world of transnational organized criminal networks.

  • Environmental DNA

    By taking samples of soil, water, snow, or even air, we can access the environmental DNA (or eDNA) that animals naturally shed—like hair, skin, and feces—as they move through their environment. eDNA can then be used to detect endangered species, study the impacts of climate change, alert us to invisible threats such as pathogens, and assess the overall health of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems.

    A man wears blue plastic gloves and pours liquid from a white bottle into a clear bottle and stands in front of a lake with pine trees and a mountain range in the background
  • Conserving Wildlife and Enabling Communities in Namibia

    Namibia is home to an array of wildlife, from ostriches and zebras roaming the gravel plains to penguins and seals chilling in the Atlantic currents. It was the first African country to incorporate protection of the environment into its constitution. With WWF’s help, the government has reinforced this conservation philosophy by empowering its communities with rights to manage and benefit from the country’s wildlife through communal conservancies.

    Namibian woman