SYSMAS: a handy software to manage by SMS & Web interface notifications on HWC & other wildlife events…
Date
2014-09
Authors
Le Bel, Sébastien, speaker
Chavernac, David, speaker
Breck, Stewart, moderator
International Wildlife Ranching Symposium, producer
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Abstract
Human-wildlife conflicts have drastically increased around conservation areas in Africa in recent decades, thus undermining the peaceful cohabitation of wildlife populations and rural human settlements. Mitigation packages include various reporting forms, which are often ineffective since the information conveyed is generally scattered and useless. The booming mobile phone sector and the popular use of text messages (SMS) have provided an opportunity to assess the impact of real-time communication systems in human-wildlife conflict mitigation strategies. After preliminary tests conducted in Mozambique and Zimbabwe with FrontlineSMS, we improved the recording and transfer of raw information generated at field level with the development of an integrated system called SYSMAS. Apart from improving the quality of wildlife based information, SYSMAS was developed as a handy management tool informing in real time decision makers and easy to upload even without specific computer skills. This paper details how easy any human-wildlife conflict incident or wildlife event can be translated into a set of explanatory variables and captured on mobile phones with ad-hoc SMS models. According to local communication facilities, real-time sharing of the information could be achieved directly through a Web interface or via SMS; this last been more handy in remote African farmland. Once adopted, such a human-wildlife conflict early warning system could be deployed at low cost. The same approach could be promoted for the establishment of reporting systems on wildlife disease outbreaks.
Description
Moderator: Stewart Breck.
Presented at the 8th international congress for wildlife and livelihoods on private and communal lands: livestock, tourism, and spirit, that was held on September 7-12, 2014 in Estes Park, Colorado.
Video presenter: Sébastien Le Bel.
Presented at the 8th international congress for wildlife and livelihoods on private and communal lands: livestock, tourism, and spirit, that was held on September 7-12, 2014 in Estes Park, Colorado.
Video presenter: Sébastien Le Bel.
Rights Access
Subject
Wildlife management -- Congresses
Range management -- Congresses