WildLeaks Is the WikiLeaks for Wildlife Crimes

As the illegal wildlife trade has boomed, it's also become more sophisticated. High prices for ivory, rhino horn, pangolin, and everything else have attracted organized crime and militants, and despite regular busts, entrenched trafficking rings remain elusive. To aid law enforcement and gather intelligence, a group of wildlife organizations have launched WildLeaks, a secure whistleblower and tipping system modeled after WikiLeaks.

"Wildlife crimes very often go undetected and unchallenged when people do not speak up about them, and whistleblowers can play a crucial role in fighting back, creating awareness and supporting justice," reads the project site.

After taking a spin around the project's newly-launched site, I was impressed with how easy WildLeaks is to use. Built on the GlobaLeaks open-source whistleblowing platform, WildLeaks gives two options for security: Confidential messaging, which uses SSL encryption, and Anonymous, which is powered through WildLeaks' Tor address. (http://ppdz5djzpo3w5k2z.onion, for those of you wondering.) Double points to the site for reminding users to use Tor for extra security:

Before allowing users to submit simply over HTTPS, the site warns that "with a HTTPS submission you are exposing yourself to the risks that someone else will know that you have submitted something, without knowing what you have submitted," and actually requires users answer a quiz about what HTTPS security means before proceeding.

The goal, of course, it to let anyone with knowledge of wildlife crime—whether it be an associate of a Mr. Big, or a witness to official corruption—get information into the hands of authorities.

The project is led by Andrea Crosta, a co-founder of Elephant Action League, which is helping fund the project in tandem with support from a slate of environmental and journalistic partners. Along with Crosta, WildLeaks has a quartet of wildlife crime experts as managers and advisers. According to the site, they'll be evaluating what gets send in. WildLeaks also that that it "uses sophisticated intelligence methodology, a vast network of contacts and the latest technologies" to figure out what to do with tips.

While it'll be a bit until the new project produces its first results, the whole concept is worthy of praise because it adds another avenue for intelligence gathering in a field that sorely needs it. Wildlife crime is one of the largest international crime markets in the world, but funding and support for enforcement pales in comparison to the drug trade, which is the largest. And while the wildlife trade has certainly received more attention of late, the amount of support pledged by governments is simply not enough to make a significant dent.

Recently we've lauded the increasing number of ivory crushing ceremonies worldwide, which send an important message that ivory is not okay to own. Although such symbolic efforts are key to driving down demand for illegal wildlife products—a crucial step for long-term control of the trade—they must be backed up with actual enforcement action. To that end, WildLeaks offers a great platform for sharing information that's far more visible and easy-to-use than any current option.

@derektmead