Poaching and illegal trade, the use of poison and trafficking in endangered species, constitute some of the greatest threats for wildlife. It is considered the second greatest threat to biodiversity worldwide after habitat destruction. Furthermore, its impact and repercussions are widely underestimated, both by justice systems and security forces involved in the detection and prosecution of these crimes and by the public at large. 

WWF has embarked on an ambitious project, with Viernes by its side, that consists of developing a European platform to combat wildlife crimes.

This project, funded by the European Community’s LIFE program, will be implemented for 3 years in a total of 11 countries, including Spain, Bulgaria, Rumania, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovakia, Hungry, Italy, the Ukraine and Poland. It is coordinated by WWF Bulgaria, and another nine WWF national and regional offices participate. Other organizations such as FFI, Traffic and the Judicial Academy and Office of the Bar of the Republic of Croatia also participate. Despite their obvious cultural and legislative differences, the initiative has been able to involve and coordinate each one of these players to combat the problem that affects us all together. It aims to apply effective measures to put an end to impunity for wildlife crimes.

The first step consisted of laying down a solid strategy which, while covering the general objectives, would also be tailored to and effective in local situations. This made it imperative to design an impacting identity, with personality, to bring these crimes to center stage. This fostered a holistic communication campaign using creativity to put forward both strategic and tactical solutions. 

 SWiPE’s challenge is to reduce crime and integrate the 11 partner countries in the fight to save wildlife by involving both experts and the general public. It is a broad-based, multi-faceted project requiring various approaches. Strategically speaking, the project’s challenge becomes a communication challenge to describe what we need to reach whom and how. A central concept is honed to expose wildlife crimes’ actual impact and repercussions. Creatively speaking, it is to find powerful ways of getting the message across to our various audiences, ensuring they are adapted to each specific audience and country. And lastly, tactically speaking, it is to ensure the message is also tailored to the specific challenges in each country.

Our priority was to find a concept that would impact the actual problem while defining its importance and breadth. It would need to stir and mobilize, spanning both the rational and the emotional, to suit all target audiences and regions and make us think about the dangers biodiversity crimes pose to the balance of life on earth and the need for us to confront the problem together.

The concept put forward is based on the staggering reality. It enables us to develop solid, real, vivacious communication conceived to grow, be explanatory and adapt to different contexts and mediums. It was with this premise that we developed a singular SWiPE identity and a campaign through visual language which at first glance takes us to the world of criminology, seeking impact by evoking criminal investigation. The identity comprises the creation of a logo, web design, templates for internal documents, a notice board, and more. For the campaign, we created and produced a video using archive images, pieces for social media and posters for the various offices. Graphic templates were used that were fully adaptable to each case and communication need.