In addition, sixty members of the Environmental Protection Police have also received training on this tool.
The implementation of the spatial monitoring and reporting tool (SmartAdvances in national protected areas in Ecuador. So far there are 26 areas in which it is already being applied. In this system, anomalies or environmental crimes that are taking place in these areas can be loaded.
In addition, sixty members of the National Environmental Protection Police Unit have also received training on this platform that was developed by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in conjunction with various environmental organizations in 2011.
In Ecuador, it was implemented for the first time in the Yasuní National Park in 2014. After that year, it has been implemented in 25 more protected areas. Five of these areas were added in 2020 and for this they had the support of organizations such as WWF-Ecuador.
“The idea is that the 60 police officers begin the implementation of the tool to cover fixed checkpoints, wildlife and forest operations. Also for controls in ports and airports. The idea that the tool is used in the protected areas system and by the police is to unify the information so that decisions can be made”, Says Diana Paredes, coordinator of Landscape Ecology at WCS Ecuador.
WCS hopes that in the coming years, with the support of other actors, this tool will be available in all the country’s protected areas, which number about 60. In October 2020, through an agreement, the Ministry of the Environment approved and made official the use of Smart in all these protected areas of the country.
The software is designed to be operated by rangers or national park chiefs, but it can also be used by organizations or individuals providing support in control patrols. (I)
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