Page 248 - ITU-T Focus Group Digital Financial Services – Executive Summary

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 more insights 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 being 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 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 are 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 parties and
promote the international adoption of WEMS, with the support of concerned international agencies involved
in monitoring of enforcement and compliance to MEAs.

A References

Wanga.Y, Guan.L, Piao.Z, Wang.Z, Kong.Y. Monitoring wildlife crossing structures along highways in Changbai
Mountain, China. China Academy of Transportation Sciences, Changbai Mountain Academy of Sciences. 2017

Chandran.R, Krishnan.P, Nguyen.K. Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System (WEMS): A solution to support
Kumar.S, Kumar.S. Monitoring of pet animal in smart cities using animal biometrics. Department of Computer
Science & Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology. Future Generation Computer Systems. 2016
Wildlife Enforcement Monitoring System Retrieved 16 February 2017 from http://www.wems-initiative.org/.

This case study has been prepared by:

Cristina Bueti and Mythili Menon (ITU)

244 U4SSC series