AWF IS INCREASINGLY applying technology to make conservation more effective. In Bili-Uele in the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, AWF had already worked to improve ecological monitoring and anti-poaching with tools such as CyberTracker, the Spatial Monitoring and Analysis Tool (or SMART) and quad bikes transformed into mobile anti-poaching units. Now, the organisation has set its sights on the next cutting-edge innovation: drones.
AWF entered into a partnership with the University of Maryland to pilot the use of drones – also known as unmanned aerial vehicles – in Bili-Uele. Not only will the drones help the Congolese wildlife authority increase the geographic area it can monitor, they will also help keep rangers safe in a landscape inhabited by factions of the Lord’s Resistance Army (or LRA).