Satellite and drone images, despite their undeniable contribution for monitoring, they are limited in the initial years of FLR efforts. Data collection at field level is crucial in the first projects years.

Data collection at field level is further divided into three participative approaches:

• Permanent sampling plots: Fixed plots, where tree height, DBH, and tree survival rates will be estimated. Permanent sampling plots will be assessed in 3-year interval, due to their high labor and time input.
• Land use planning: discussion rounds for the assessment of information, as well as identification of endangered species according to the Red List of Threatened Species by the World Conservation Union (IUCN). It is integrated into other land use planning processes, and thus, has not a defined assessment interval.
• Transects: Identification of floristic and faunistic species, as well as forest structure composition, in an assessment interval of three months

All relevant indicators included in the three participative approaches are collected using the KOBO Toolbox. This software offers suitable conditions and is easy to operate, aligning with the monitoring objectives of the project.

Compared to similar carbon projects in agriculture, the Western Kenya Soil Carbon Project piloted an efficient Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) system. By using a modelling approach instead of pure activity monitoring, monitoring costs of the scheme could be decreased significantly. Also, the pilot uses digital monitoring tools (app), which makes the MRV more efficient. The digitalized MRV system provides the potential to integrate commodity market platform access for smallholder farmers. 

The implementation of the technical architecture and monitoring programme has ensured the availability of a big database of information both of the species and its environment. Data availability is key to ensure that park staff (managers, rangers, technicians, etc.) makes informed decisions when it comes to territory and species management strategies. Besides, the local design of the monitoring programme and the parameters within it, has increased the capacity of the park staff not only to manage it, but also to improve it and eventually apply it to the monitoring of different species and even other phenomena.

Following two funding calls, a total of 17 projects were selected. The projects represent a very wide range of different approaches and solution ideas for pursuing the Alliance's goals, depending on the respective context.

To increase the visibility of the projects and to foster knowledge exchange they are invited to present their ongoing work, intermediate goals and preliminary results to the Alliance community through posts on the website or at online events.

The members area is exclusive for registered members (individuals or organisations) of the Alliance. The membership is free of charge and gives you the chance to join forces for a common cause as well as connect, collaborate and partner with other members.

The Members Area serves as a platform for internal exchange, sharing of interesting articles, job opportunities and event dates as well as having access to video recordings of past events on demand.

The aim is to establish practices, rules and/or standards to reduce risks to the environment, human and animal health in trade in wild animals and wild animal products in selected partner countries in global biodiversity hotspot regions. Among other things, risk assessments, the design of educational measures in different formats (digital and non-digital campaigns, training courses, etc.) and the scientific monitoring of the implementation of good practices (e.g. impact assessments) are to be promoted. The Alliance brings the relevant actors together across sectors and use concrete findings to formulate adapted regulations or or supports the institutionalization of relevant practices.

The International Alliance currently has 3 Working Groups, which are led by the members themselves and receive support from the Alliance Secretariat. Each Working Group is led by 1-2 chairs and the group meets every 6-8 weeks to ensure a continous work process.

We currently have the following Working Groups:

- Science Policy Interface (chair: Sue Liebermann, WCS)

Considering our core understanding of wildlife we want to infuse this understanding, based on scientific evidence, into international political processes.

- Transformative System Change: The Big Picture (chair: Alex D. Greenwood, IZW Berlin; Barabara Maas, NABU)

There are underlying fundamental obstacles to achieving the Alliances objectives and goals. Identifying and addressing these is the focus of this Working Group. 

- Evaluation/Effective Interventions (chair: Craig Stephen, One Health Consultant)

The aim is to gather good practices on effective interventions from Alliance members to enable learning and knowledge exchange across sectors and regions. 

Training evaluation can be understood as the systematic process of collecting information and using that information to improve the training. Without disregarding the pre-training evaluation, keeping track during and after the training is relevant for the ongoing and future trainings.

A lot of is still unknown about elephants’ dietary preferences and deterrence crops. To expand our knowledge and create replicable methodologies, we studied elephants’ preferences towards 18 different types of crops, the majority of which are of high combined economic value (food, essential oil, medicinal and bee fodder value) and suitable for growing in Southern African climates. The cafeteria-style experiments allowed us to evaluate several plants that have never been tested in terms of their palatability to elephants. Our results showed that herbs such as borage and rosemary with medicinal and aromatic properties, respectively, were strongly avoided together with bird’s eye chilli (a well-known elephant deterrent crop). We found that lemon grass and sunflowers, presented as whole fresh plants to the elephants, were edible to the elephants. This is surprising, as both plant types have been described as unpalatable to both Asian and African elephants alike.

According to our overall scoring system, four food types proved best suited for the proposed corridor region (Bird’s Eye Chilli, Cape Gold, Cape Snowbush and Rosemary). Of these, only Bird’s Eye Chilli had been tested before. The other three plant types have been used in producing essential oil and hold great promise for income-generation.

In May 2023, the Elephants Alive (EA) team embarked on an Human-Elephant Conflict barrier implementation mission to the Namaacha Valley in Southern Mozambique. EA and Mozambique Wildlife Allience (MWA), as well as delegates from Save The Elephants (Kenya) and PAMS Foundation (Tanzania), came together in an inspirational cooperation exercise to implement a 4-way mitigation soft barrier to protect three crop fields. The fields had been identified through field research and GPS tracking data, as high-risk for elephant crop-raiding. One side of the fence was built by hanging beehives. As the hives start to become occupied with wild swarms, we will keep training local farmers on how to keep hives and colonies healthy, by assessing the frame structures and checking if the bees have enough pollen to produce honey. This knowledge will allow the farmers to increase both their crop production, protect crops from hungry elephants and supplement their income from honey sales. The second side of the fence was made up of metal strip fencing, the noise and sight of which has been proven to deter elephants from breaking into farmers’ fields. We set up the third side of the fence with chilli rags. The fourth side of the soft barrier fence was comprised of flashing lights, a technique successfully used in Botswana.