The number of deadly encounters between people and wild animals, such as tigers, elephants, and polar bears, is growing. As people continue to encroach on wildlife habitat, such conflicts can occur over the damage caused by wildlife to livestock and property—sometimes with deadly results. In India alone, 1,200 people lost their lives in clashes with wildlife between 2014 and 2017. In return, hundreds of animals have been killed in retaliation.
Human-wildlife conflict demands new and innovative solutions. Although there are measures and tools in place to prevent it—from electric fences and trenches to chili bombs and firecrackers—these methods have proven inadequate in fully preventing interactions between humans and wildlife.
In response, WWF and WILDLABS, an online community connecting conservationists and tech experts, harnessed the combined skills and knowledge of engineers, designers, and nature lovers from around the world to help solve this pressing conservation issue. WWF’s first international Human Wildlife Conflict Tech Challenge sought innovative solutions to minimize human-wildlife conflict in response to two specific case studies focused on Asian elephants and carnivores (tiger or polar bear). WILDLABS provided the platform for the challenge on their website.
The challenge received 47 innovative ideas from 14 countries. An international panel of human-wildlife conflict and technology experts assessed the feasibility of the proposals and chose the winners. British conservation technologist Alasdair Davies and the Dutch team of Laurens de Groot and Tim van Dam of the ShadowView Foundation submitted the two winning proposals. Each winner will receive nearly $35,000 to further develop and field test their solution for human-wildlife conflict.