What we did
The project
Criminal activities exploiting nature, such as illegal logging, fishing, mining, wildlife trade, and land conversion, are increasingly linked with broader categories of organized crime in addition to the harm they exact on the environment. The Nature Crime Alliance (NCA) was launched in 2022 as a coalition of government and non-government partners combating criminal activities that exploit natural resources worldwide.
This strategic initiative needed to take a long-term view of how nature crimes might evolve and what technology solutions might need to be developed or accelerated to tackle crimes. We developed a methodology to support NCA in assessing technologies and developing a framework to bring agencies, technologies, and advocacy together.
A holistic approach to fighting nature crimes
Nature crimes pose significant threats to biodiversity and sustainable development, often operating within complex and opaque networks. We developed a foresight model that would anticipate solutions in the fight against these crimes, creating a comprehensive framework to guide the development and application of technologies across the environmental sector to ensure effective and timely interventions.
This framework would consist of methods to detect, prevent, and disrupt nature crimes.
Harnessing technology for environmental justice
The strategy behind the Horizon Scan and Foresight Model was to identify and leverage existing and emerging technologies that could significantly impact the prevention, detection, and disruption of nature crimes. By conducting a detailed horizon scan, the NCA would be able to map out the landscape of tools and technologies currently at play, as well as those in development, which could be repurposed or enhanced to serve the environmental sector.
Building a new foresight model and horizon framework
Our team collaborated with experts across multiple environmental and technology sectors to formalize this strategy into a tool. We identified key technologies, assessed their potential impact, and integrated them into a structured foresight framework. This framework was designed to not only capture the current state of technological solutions but also to anticipate future developments and needs, ensuring the NCA would be able to identify trends and opportunities to leverage technology across multiple crime sectors.
Shaping the future of nature crime prevention
The framework informs decision-making and resource allocation for combating nature crimes and has facilitated a deeper understanding of how various technologies can be configured to meet the unique challenges posed by these crimes. Moreover, the project has fostered a collaborative network of stakeholders, enhancing the collective capacity to address the impacts of illegal environmental activities.
With our support, the NCA team delivered a working session with technology leaders from around the world to showcase the framework and how NCA will expand the framework in the future using the Foresight methods.
