Wildlife Crime Inquiry

Wildlife Crime Inquiry

Share this post

Wildlife Crime Inquiry
Wildlife Crime Inquiry
Using SMART Data Smarter

Using SMART Data Smarter

A Step-by-Step Guide for Practical Spatial Analysis of Hotspots

Wildlife Crime Inquiry's avatar
Wildlife Crime Inquiry
May 14, 2025
∙ Paid

Share this post

Wildlife Crime Inquiry
Wildlife Crime Inquiry
Using SMART Data Smarter
Share

Why This Matters

In protected areas around the world, SMART has transformed how ranger patrols are recorded, monitored, and reported. It’s an incredible step forward: more conservation teams now have years of patrol and incident data at their fingertips. However, collecting data is only part of the story. If we don't analyse it meaningfully, we risk missing the very insights that could make patrols safer, more effective, and more targeted.

This guide shares a practical, field-tested method for using spatial analysis — with free tools like QGIS and R — to move beyond counting patrol kilometres and start better understanding patterns of illegal activity. By doing so we can help conservation teams shift from reporting what happened to predicting and preventing where risks are highest.

Keep reading with a 7-day free trial

Subscribe to Wildlife Crime Inquiry to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.

Already a paid subscriber? Sign in
© 2025 Emma
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start writingGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture

Share