To strengthen the law enforcement ability to support wildlife conservation efficiently, WCS China has promoted the second edition of our SMART training workshop on August 5-10, 2013 in collaboration with Jilin Forestry Police, Jilin Forestry Academy, and WWF. This workshop saw the participation of 46 officers from 17 agencies and institutes of Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces (1).
The workshop featured the following five sessions: (1) Foundations of wildlife conservation laws of Jilin Province, (2) SMART patrolling concept, (3) Patrolling lessons learned sharing, (4) Field operations with GPS and SMART software, (5) Defining patrolling tables.
The active discussion among participants highlighted a number of limitations of the current wildlife conservation SMART patrolling approach:
(1) Gaps in the laws and regulations, and the lack of enforcement powers are severely limiting the capacity to perform wildlife conservation; (2) Legal framework, government endorsement, personnel, equipment, public approval, and funds, are all prerequisites for SMART operations; (3) Collected information should be used for improving the management of patrol and adjust the strategy in real time; (4) The reward mechanism should become a basic component of the patrolling management in its various forms (subsidy, bonus, honors, demotion, etc.).
A package was distributed to all the workshop participants containing the Chinese SMART software compilation 1.1, SMART Technical Training manual, SMART Patrolling Operations specifications, Jilin Wildlife Conservation Management manual, and the Far East Wildlife Trail guide. Changbai Mountain National Nature Reserve, Northeast Tiger Hunchun Nature Reserve, Hunchun Forestry Bureau, and Wangqing Forestry Bureau committed to update their systems with this new software compilation for SMART operations. Other agencies showed interest in adopting it for their patrolling operations: Huangnihe Nature Reserve, Wangqing County Forestry Bureau in Jilin province, and XiaoBeiHu National Nature Reserve, Laoye Mountain Northeast Tiger nature reserves, Muling Forestry Bureau in Heilongjiang province.

Field operation of GPS and Patrolling table ©长白山自然保护管理中心
(1) Participating entities included: Hunchun Northeast Tiger National Nature Reserve Administration, Hunchun Forestry Bureau, Wangqing Forestry Bureau, Huangnihe National Nature Reserve, Changbai Mountain Nature Reserve Management Center, Wangqing County Forestry Bureau, Phoenix Mountain National Nature Reserve Administration in Heilongjiang, Heilongjiang Laoye Northeast Tiger Nature Reserve Administration, Muling Forestry Bureau, Dongning Forestry Bureau in Heilongjiang Province, XiaoBeiHu National Nature Reserve, Beijing Forestry University Wildlife Institute, Global Environmental Institute.