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United for Smart Sustainable Cities
Connecting cities and communities with the Sustainable Development Goals

WILDLIFE ENFORCEMENT MONITORING SYSTEM

Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring Systems (WEMS), developed by the United Nations University (UNU), is a
web-based model for the collection, compilation, and analysis of data linked to wildlife monitoring and
protection. This system is intended to serve as a common mechanism to ensure prevention of wildlife crimes
and promote regulation of wildlife at the national, regional and global levels. One of the key aims of WEMS
is to monitor compliance with international legislations on wildlife conservation.

WEMS facilitates sharing information on enforcement and compliance to the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). It is also known to assist with the
implementation of other multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) for trans-boundary information
sharing is required.
If effectively implemented, WEMS can curb hunting and illegal trafficking of endangered species of both flora
and fauna and thereby dismantle the growing black-market for wildlife goods and protect the wildlife
ecosystem.
Source: Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System. Retrieved 16 February 2017 from http://www.wems-
initiative.org/ .

3 Conclusion

As these structures are used seamlessly by certain species, it is advisable to build more such passages for this
purpose. More consistent monitoring of all crossing structures may help provide further insight into species’
movements between the reserves.
Additionally, given the increasing traffic in these areas, it is advised to build fences surround the bridges and
culverts which will help guide species and prevent them from becoming victims of road accidents.

Similar pilot projects in other places, as well as Changbai areas, can be conducted to monitor wildlife
populations and also help reduce the illegal hunting of endangered species. These pilot projects can be
exclusively linked to WEMS to ensure global awareness on the situation.
It is acknowledged that as the number of multilateral environmental agreements is on the increase, national
governments are finding it difficult to keep track of and implement even the basic guidelines in the MEAs.
This makes information collection and flow to international environmental repositories inconvenient. To
overcome such challenges, countries should strive to enforce the MEAs to which they are party and promote
the international adoption of WEMS, with the support of concerned international agencies involved in the
monitoring of enforcement and compliance to MEAs.

A References

Wanga.Y, Guan.L, Piao.Z, Wang.Z, Kong.Y., (2017), Monitoring wildlife crossing structures along highways in
Changbai Mountain, China, China Academy of Transportation Sciences, Changbai Mountain Academy of
Sciences.
Chandran.R, Krishnan.P, Nguyen.K. Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS): Compliance of
Multilateral Environmental Agreements. Government Information Quarterly, 28(2): 231-238, Elsevier Science
B.V., Amsterdam; 2011.
Kumar.S, Kumar.S., (2016), Monitoring of pet animal in smart cities using animal biometrics. Department of
Computer Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology. Future Generation Computer Systems.
Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System.
http://www.wems-initiative.org/ (accessed 16 February 2017)

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