Sounds good! Love to hear more about it! 

Hi Matt!

I'm particularly very interested in joining this group. It's a very important topic and I already have so many questions and points to add.

Hope the others agree!

Hello WildLabs community!

My name is Dr. Tariq Ahmad, and I am actively engaged in the conservation of the Indian pangolin (Manis crassicaudata). As part of my research and fieldwork, I focus on understanding the ecology, habitat requirements, threats, and conservation challenges facing this iconic species.

The Indian pangolin is one of the most trafficked mammals in Asia, facing severe pressure from illegal trade and habitat loss. My work includes:

• 📍 Conducting field surveys and camera-trapping to assess pangolin distribution
• 📊 Analysing habitat suitability and threat patterns
• 🐾 Collaborating with local communities and stakeholders for conservation action
• 🧬 Publishing research to inform policy and protection strategies

I am passionate about translating science into practical conservation outcomes and engaging with global networks to support pangolin protection. I look forward to connecting with others working on pangolins, wildlife trafficking, biodiversity monitoring, and conservation technologies.

Feel free to reach out — I’d love to share insights, tools, and collaboration opportunities!

Warm regards,
Dr. Tariq Ahmad

Hi Mandy, writing from Indonesia where we manage the Sumatra Merang Peatland Project (SMPP) which is in a landscape supporting some of the last Sumatran tigers. Our project is part of a corridor including two national parks and a few scattered conservation areas within active oil palm and Acacia plantations. There's not a lot of room for tigers and they do range through human communities or come into contact with plantation workers. 

Fatal attacks are rare but two occurred in 2022. We hold annual HWC trainings with communities but also celebrate International Tiger Day with them, having a light-hearted event with games, face paint, and education of the importance of biodiversity, even when scary. We emphasize common sense personal safety measures to reduce the potential for conflict. Luckily livestock aren't very common in this area so that conflict trigger is not a major issue. Mostly it's about restricting activity at dusk/night/dawn, travelling in groups, not running, etc. We haven't found any feasible tech options (tagging is beyond our scope/budget) but we do use camera traps to see if/when tigers are present in/around our project area. This can only do so much for HWC as it's not a rapid response tool but does indicate presence. 

Regarding your question "Who/what parties should be held responsible for the loss of life, both human and tiger? Can they be held responsible?" there isn't an easy answer! Indonesian law technically gives tigers the same right-to-life as humans but in practice reprisals of course happen. In our region the military did respond to the 2022 events with patrols and presence, but they were not allowed to shoot. Obviously there is no proactive recourse against the tiger itself as a responsible party. It's an opportunity to redouble efforts on community education to explain why the attacks occurred (both fatalities were at forest frontiers, crouching with back to the forest, etc) and how to avoid re-occurrence! 

I'm not involved with this, but I just learned about Sea Shepherd today and their project to fight illegal octopus trapping. Sorry I can't help with an intro, but it would be a very cool story to share if you can get in touch! 



 

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Amazing!

Found your instagram page and have been scrolling all morning ( most educative doomscrolling I've done so far😂). Love it, am seeing sea creatures I've never seen.

Wonderful work! Would you be interested in documenting a story about afforestation from the Pacific Ocean to the Himalayas (Indus River focus)? 

I’m interested in doing an expedition documentary bridging mythology and conservation with a YouTuber to help bring awareness towards forest conservation all along the river. The focus is water and water wildlife.

If there is anything I can do with skillsets to help, let me know.

Hi Macayle

Are these two different forums; one in Mombasa and other in Nairobi? can you make me understand please?

Hi Adam! 

Sounds like you have your work cut out for you. I have not used radar systems or AI systems for this sort of detection, but there are methods using change detection models to visualise changes in forests where logging may be occuring between different dates using drone photogrammetry and GIS software. I have found these methods very effective when monitoring deforestation, especially because not only can you quickly visualise where deforestation has happened, but you can also quantify the damage at the same time. Let me know if you would like to learn more.

Kind regards

Sean Hill

I am not sure about the legal restrictions for drones in Cambodia and the size of the area you want to cover. However, I would assume you would need a fairly large fixed-wing drones for the size of area, you would be interested in. At this scale, a small manned aircraft might be more accessible.

Regarding the use of sensors, the use of radar on drones is a rather uncommon outside military applications. Some mining companies use magnetic sensors to detector iron ore under the ground. Maybe they would be able to detect large metal objects as well. However, I assume logging activities should be fairly obvious, and I think a simple RGB sensor would be sufficient. In terms of data process, assuming you are looking for larger logging activity and camps, I do not think you need to develop an AI model to do this. The impact on the landscape should be obvious.



However, what you are describing sounds like the perfect use case of spaceborne SAR. ICEYE is a commercial product which might be an all-in-one solution for you. Otherwise, there is Global Forest Watch or you could develop your own workflow using something like Sentiel-1.



Good luck with your project!

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Nice!

Thought I'd mention that Wildlife Security Innovations will have a booth there, demonstrating our new multi-camera, local AI camera trap that supports miniature high resolution thermal modules. I will be bringing these along.

Hi

This is great! 

So just to double check - there is no way to join online? I would love to be part of this conference. 

Thanks, Els van Lavieren