Guwahati, July 14: A team from Aaranyak’s Legal and Advocacy Division (LAD) participated in the Indian
Wildlife Ecology Conference (IWEC) 2026, held at Ashoka University, Sonipat, Haryana, during July 10-
11, last, 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.
