14/07/2026
🌳 IWEC 2026: Aaranyak and WTI lead discussions on community-based approaches to combat wildlife crime
A team from Aaranyak's Legal and Advocacy Division (LAD) participated in the (IWEC) 2026, held at Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana, during July 10-11, where the team co-organised a Special Interest Group (SIG) with the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI) on the theme "Establishing a Community of Practice to Address Illegal Wildlife Hunting and Trade through Integrated Community Surveillance and Evidence-Based Protection."
The two-day SIG brought together researchers, conservation practitioners, law enforcement professionals, policymakers, and community representatives to deliberate on innovative and collaborative approaches for tackling illegal wildlife hunting and trade (IWHT).
The SIG was jointly inaugurated by Dr. Jimmy Borah, Deputy Director, LAD, Aaranyak, and Jose Louies, CEO, WTI, who introduced the objectives of the session and provided the context for discussions. They highlighted the urgent need to bridge ecological research, community participation, governance, and evidence-based protection to strengthen wildlife crime prevention and establish a long-term community of practice dedicated to addressing illegal wildlife trade.
Ms. Binita Baruwati, Deputy Manager of LAD, Aaranyak, presented a session on "Open-Source Information on Wildlife Crime Data Collection and its Applications in Real-World Problem Solving," demonstrating how publicly available digital information can be systematically collected, analysed, and applied to support wildlife crime investigations and conservation decision-making.
Ms. Ivy Farheen Hussain, Senior Project Officer of LAD, Aaranyak, delivered two presentations. Her first presentation, "Pet Shops as Trafficking Nodes: A Case Study from a City-wide Survey in Guwahati, India," highlighted findings from an extensive survey examining the role of urban pet shops in the trade of exotic and protected wildlife species.
Her second presentation, "Integrated Surveillance Approaches for Emerging Wildlife Crime Threats: The Concept of Community Surveillance and Monitoring Teams (CSMT) and Success Stories from Arunachal Pradesh," demonstrated how community-led surveillance has strengthened wildlife crime prevention and conservation outcomes.
Further highlighting Aaranyak's evidence-based conservation efforts, Mizing Boro, Project Officer, and Bijeet Baro, Assistant Project Officer, jointly presented "Evidence-Based Wildlife Crime Prevention: Using SMART to Tackle Wildlife Crimes through Data-Driven Approaches." The presentation showcased how SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) has been used to improve patrol planning, analyse threats, strengthen monitoring systems, and support adaptive management for wildlife protection.
The SIG also featured presentations by experts from the Wildlife Trust of India and partner organisations covering diverse themes including community participation in pangolin conservation, trade in threatened plants, cyber-assisted wildlife crime, criminological approaches to understanding illegal wildlife trade, and species-specific trafficking dynamics.
The interactive discussions throughout the two-day SIG generated valuable recommendations for strengthening community-based surveillance systems, improving the use of technology and intelligence in wildlife crime prevention, and fostering stronger collaboration among researchers, practitioners, government agencies, and local communities. A key outcome of the session was the collective commitment to establish a cross-sectoral Community of Practice that will facilitate continued knowledge exchange, collaborative research, policy dialogue, and the development of innovative approaches for combating illegal wildlife hunting and trade.
Aaranyak sincerely acknowledges the generous support of the Resilience Fund – Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and the Weeden Foundation, enabling its team to participate in IWEC 2026.
Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime
