**MEDIA ALERT**

 

WCS Media Briefing: The Hi-Tech Tool Poachers Hate

 

  • SMART Connect allows rangers and conservation area managers to exchange critical information and transmit data in real time

  • Developer of “SMART Connect” will explain how new tool can revolutionize protected area management

  • SMART is currently deployed in over 600 sites in 55 countries around the world

 

Live Special Presentation for Media: Wednesday, Feb. 14, @12 Noon USET. Log in via WebEx Here

 

Newswise — NEW YORK (February 6, 2018) – Poachers beware: a new tool called SMART Connect is putting conservationists one step ahead of wildlife traffickers. WCS experts will give a live presentation explaining how the tool works and how it is making protected area staff around the world savvier and more strategic in their dedicated efforts to limit the illegal trade of wildlife.

WHO: Jonathan Palmer, WCS Executive Director of Strategic Technology

WHAT: An Overview of SMART Connect – a cloud-based extension that allows rangers and conservation area managers to exchange critical information and transmit data in real time.

Connect better integrates SMART data with other commonly used sensors, such as remote camera traps, and facilitates better access to sharing of SMART products, such as maps and reports.

WHERE: Log in via WebEx here

WHEN: Wednesday, Feb. 14, @12 Noon USET

BACKGROUND: SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) is an open-source collaborative tool for protected area staff throughout the world that standardizes how they monitor and enforce. It has already been used successfully in 600 terrestrial and marine sites in 55 countries across Africa, Asia, and Latin America. It has rapidly become the global standard for conservation law enforcement and protected area monitoring. Because of SMART, protected areas are more effectively managed, more poachers have been caught, and more wildlife has been saved. SMART is administered by a coalition of nine conservation groups: Frankfurt Zoological Society, Global Wildlife Conservation, North Carolina Zoo, Panthera, Peace Parks Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society, Wildlife Protection Solutions, World Wildlife Fund, and Zoological Society of London.

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WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society)

MISSION: WCS saves wildlife and wild places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and inspiring people to value nature. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses the power of its Global Conservation Program in nearly 60 nations and in all the world’s oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its conservation mission. Visit: newsroom.wcs.org Follow: @WCSNewsroom. For more information: 347-840-1242.