ECO-SOLVE

An innovative response to fighting environmental crime

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime , Thibi

Partner:

Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime , Thibi

Project type:

Interactive website

Scope:

Data visualisation
Design
Development
Illustrations

See it live

The digital age and proliferation of online platforms have complicated the tackling of illegal wildlife trade. How may this be addressed? The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime implements a new project to address this through a combination of tech, community engagement, and research to inform a data-driven approach.

About the project

ECO-SOLVE is a project within the European Union’s Global Illicit Flows Programme that uses new approaches to address global environmental crime. Environmental crime is a major contributor to the growth in serious criminal activity, threatening global peace and security. It is action-oriented and pioneers a global network of data hubs monitoring the illegal wildlife trade online.

The challenge

Layered and evolving data

The data informing this project is dynamic and layered. It provides granularity to trace and track illegal wildlife trade down to specific species types and locations. Given the evolving nature of this challenge, the dataset requires frequent updates over time. Our challenge was to visualise this in ways that were coherent, while providing the client with manageable ways to update the project for the next few years.

Multiple stakeholders and use cases

The potential users of this tool include law enforcers, policymakers, wildlife management authorities, academics, and non-profit/non-governmental organisations. It is important that depending on their specific inquiry and use scenario, that the data tool was able to surface the latest insights but still cater to their individual needs.

Our creative solution

We tackled this project with a collaborator, Thibi.co. Together, we developed a multi-page information portal with a dynamic dashboard featuring four distinct interactive data visualisations—sankey diagram, diamond-shaped treemap, ridgeline plot, and dynamic table—based on the provided dataset.

Each visualisation serves a specific purpose, from showcasing trends over time to mapping the flow of species from origin countries to high-demand regions. The dashboard’s landing page offers an overview with key quantitative insights with the interactive charts in a bento-grid layout. Users can explore each visualisation in depth on its own page with a larger view of the data viz, interact with filters, read related articles, and download the dataset for their own analysis.

Our partners

Global Initiative is an independent civil society organization based in Geneva, Switzerland. Its network includes prominent practitioners in law enforcement, development, and governance committed to finding new and innovative strategies and responses to organised crime.

Thibi is a consultancy working in the space between data + design. We build data-driven cultures and technologies that enable people to tackle complexity with empathy.

You’ve done the work. Now let us make it exceptional.