New site to aid the fight for silent victims worldwide
A new website will provide an avenue for insiders to blow the whistle on crimes against nature.
Specifically, the site allows people to provide sensitive information about wildlife and forest crime without the fear of reprisal.
WildLeaks has been launched by the Elephant Action League to form a secure online platform similar to WikiLeaks.
Authorities from conservation groups and police say they hope it will shine a light on activities such as wildlife poaching and trafficking, illegal timber operations and other exploitation.
The trade in illegal wildlife and timber is a major global industry, worth about $18 billion per year. It also results in the deaths of about 100 national park rangers annually.
Organisers say they hope the site will give a voice to locals and small communities throughout Africa and Asia, which can often be intimidated into silence by the violent threats of criminal groups.
WildLeaks project leader Andrea Crosta says the information is there, they just need to get it out.
“We thought there was a gap between people with important information and people who can actually do things with this information,” Mr Crosta says.
“The priority remains to prevent wildlife crime where possible and to facilitate the identification, arrest and prosecution of people behind those crimes.”
WildLeaks is calling for recounts, photos, videos, government reports or virtually any form of documentation to be submitted.
The site has a security system which generates a ten digit login number for every new submission, which then becomes the only piece of information retained about the person blowing the whistle.
WildLeaks has taken on a role to authenticate and expand on any information it is given, before passing it on to law enforcement authorities and the media.
Many countries are a long way behind in the efforts to deal with the activities that threaten the entire Earth ecosystem.
“It is huge problem and it is even more serious because most countries do not see it as a real crime,” Mr Costa said.
“They see wildlife and forest crimes as environmental issues while in fact, they are not. They are serious crimes, with serious criminal syndicates and groups behind it.”
The anti-trafficking investigative organisation Global Eye has just opened up an Asia-Pacific office in the North Queensland city of Cairns.
Chief executive officer of Global Eye, Fiachra Kearney, says WildLeaks is an excellent weapon in the war against wildlife crime.
“It is the first global mechanism to allow people to submit information in an anonymous way and what we do in Global Eye is take that information and try and convert that into actionable intelligence,” he said.