What We Do
IWDF provides innovative technologies, such as one-man backpackable unmanned air vehicles with day/night camera sensor payloads, operator control units, bidirectional datalink communication systems, spare parts and training. Our pilots embed directly with national park ranger quick reaction forces (QRF) or special response teams (SRT). Our pilots fly unmanned air vehicle missions for the national park rangers and stream live day/night video to them during counter-poaching operations. The live video contains GPS coordinates and is used to plan intercepts of potential poachers by the national park rangers. The live video is streamed from as far away as twenty-five (25) miles and provides real-time situational awareness on the location of endangered wildlife, potential poachers, and national park ranger assets such as QRF/SRT units within the area of operation. The information is presented on the operator control unit that is used to fly the unmanned air vehicle and provides the capability for national park rangers to determine the best and shortest route to take in order to intercept and interdict potential poachers before they can reach the animals to kill them.
IWDF also provides a nanoparticle marker solution that is deployed from unmanned air vehicles to establish linkages between poacher kill sites, poachers at the kill sites, and vehicles at the kill sites. This provides a chain of evidence that links poachers, kill sites, animal parts, smugglers and their vehicles, and animal body part storage facilities.
In addition to our direct-action support of national park rangers for anti-poaching, IWDF works with established in-country nonprofit organizations (NPOs) to provide support for rural community empowerment projects. We support educational programs, clean water projects, humane animal/human conflict mitigation for agricultural projects, and development of local artisans to promote African culture and art for the economic benefit of the artisans and their communities.
We support anti-trafficking of wildlife body parts by supporting the enforcement of governmental regulations and laws by the nation’s judicial system and we encourage national and local law enforcement to prosecute poachers, smugglers, and wholesalers who are engaged in the illegal trafficking of wildlife body parts to buyers around the world.
Community Empowerment
Sustainable community development protects the interests of local peoples and wildlife, thus mitigating their conflict, especially around livestock and agricultural projects. Our endeavors include:
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Education of African leaders, starting with community youth education programs that provide the three R’s, as well as job skills training for older members of the community
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Livelihood empowerment projects that promote women-owned micro-businesses derived from agriculture, and African arts and crafts, such as wood carvings, bead work, jewelry and fabrics—all sourced from African materials and resources.
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Infrastructure projects, such as clean water wells, small electricity generating stations based on solar/wind technologies, that are used to power water pumps and refrigeration units.
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Work with Safari hunting concessionaires to donate meat from grass-grazing animals that have been killed. This disincentivizes local villages from poaching bushmeat to provide the community with protein.
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Points of community empowerment require consensus with some of or all of the following:
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Village Chief and community leaders
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Local government
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National government
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Nongovernmental organizations/nonprofit organizations (NGOs/NPOs)
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Safari concessionaires
