Minimizing ivory poaching in Tanzania’s National Parks


In December of 2014, The Nature Conservancy sent me to Tanzania on a fellowship to collaborate with Tanzania National Parks Authority and establish  a business case for maximizing TANAPA’s use of existing GIS investments to minimize elephant ivory poaching. I applied my Swahili-language skills and knowledge of Tanzanian culture and customs to build productive relationships and define a theory of change in collaboration with TANAPA colleagues.

Subsequently TNC and Esri implemented a pilot solution in Tarangire National Park that tested the capacity for managing ranger patrol data in near real time,  centralizing data at TANAPA HQ, and then summarizing data via dashboards for park managers.

We also coordinated with Wildlife Conservation Society on plans for a nationwide rollout of SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) across 16 national parks in Tanzania.

Theory of Change model