From traditional soup to the hottest pets to traditional medicine, illegal wildlife products make up one of the biggest black markets in the world. Valued at billions of dollars, the illicit trade is undoing decades of conservation work and undermining economic development and national security in countries around the world. But new technologies are being developed every day to combat the poaching and trafficking of wildlife.

To encourage innovation, the National Geographic Society partnered with the Smithsonian Institution, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring organization, in hosting the Wildlife Crime Tech Challenge. It’s a competition to solicit proposals for new ways to harness science and technology in the fight against wildlife crime.

Read the National Geographic story and see the innovative ideas here