Can Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) Improve Reporting? | International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP)International Gorilla Conservation Programme (IGCP)

Volcanoes National Park management is optimistic that the newly introduced Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool (SMART) will facilitate timely evidence-based reporting on illegal activities in the park especially poaching and improve conservation. Following the launch of the initiative last year, (https://igcp.org/updates/smart-pilot-kicks-off-involcanoes national-park/) IGCP recently organized a 3 days technical meeting for park staff and other IGCP partners in Musanze-Rwanda to develop a data model
that will help Park staff to report effectively, using the SMART devices.

A draft data model that includes general Ranger Based Monitoring and gorilla monitoring data was developed pending more modifications in the coming weeks. “Using SMART will for instance help us capture illegal park entrants at the scene so that the photos act as evidence to get them sentences depending on their respective crimes. In the past, finding evidence especially against poachers has been hard,” says Damascene Hakizimana, Monitoring and Research Warden at Volcanoes
National Park.