Taronga Zoo receives Google Grant to develop Wildlife Witness App
Congratulations to Taronga and partners the Zoo and Aquarium Association (ZAA) and TRAFFIC, who were recently awarded as finalists in the Google Impact Challenge for their project, The Wildlife Witness app.
As finalists, Google generously funded the Wildlife Witness App project with a $250 000 grant; to help make it the most effect tool against fighting illegal wildlife trade.
Awareness about illegal wildlife trade was raised all over the world, with over 60,000 people engaged with the campaign by clicking, sharing or voting and over 3,000 Wildlife Witness app downloads.
The illegal wildlife trade has reached unprecedented levels in the last decade and now ranks among the 5 most lucrative illicit markets globally. Southeast Asia is a global hotspot for wildlife crime, where wildlife and their parts are often traded openly in markets, restaurants, and for tourist experiences. ZAA will further develop the Wildlife Witness app, which allows tourists and locals the ability to safely notify suspicious animal activities to TRAFFIC, the global wildlife trade monitoring network, who work with law enforcement officials. In three years, Wildlife Witness will educate, empower and equip two million travellers, locals, and law enforcement officers to become the eyes and ears in the fight against the illegal wildlife trade.
Want to help? Down the Wildlife Witness app today from iTunes or Google play and join Targona in becoming the eyes and ears in the fight against illegal wildlife trade.
Find out more information here.