On March 18, Operations Commander Muterian Ntanin and Programs Associate Noeleen Livingstone attended a workshop for the WILD mobile application in Nairobi. WILD is an Android app and cloud-based database that allows community game scouts to collect information on poaching and human wildlife conflict (HWC) in the field and immediately transmit it back to headquarters. The information captured in WILD is stored in an online database that allows users, mainly conservancies and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), to analyze their specific landscape data and share selected information with other organizations.
The development of WILD has been supported under the USAID/Kenya and East Africa funded PREPARED Project but since funding will not continue after 2017 the purpose of the workshop was to gauge interest in the product and discuss how its ongoing maintenance and development can be funded in the future.
For MWCT the WILD app is a possible substitute for the CyberTracker app which our rangers are currently using. The WILD application has a modern interface and its cloud-based approach would eliminate the need to manually download data from smartphones.
However, the cost associated with using the WILD application is unclear and we would most likely need to form a coalition with 10-15 other conservation organizations to manage the ongoing cost and maintenance.
We will continue to monitor the progress on this project but plan to continue using CyberTracker for now.
