Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates – 9 October 2025 — Today, the SMART Partnership and EarthRanger, a product of Ai2, announced the launch of the SMART–EarthRanger Conservation Alliance (SERCA), a first-of-its-kind global collaboration to transform how the world’s protected and conserved areas are managed. With effectiveness a critical challenge for conservation worldwide, SERCA unites the world’s most widely used conservation management software, proven field experience, and global training resources into a single, free support system for those safeguarding wildlife, habitats, and the people who depend on it.
At its core will be an advanced conservation software — the “engine” that will drive better data collection and decision-making. But SERCA will go far beyond software. The alliance will integrate training resources to ensure managers can use tools effectively in the field, global standards for monitoring and reporting conservation outcomes, and a shared knowledge network connecting practitioners worldwide. Together, these elements will create the most comprehensive conservation technology initiative ever undertaken for the management of protected and conserved areas. Fundamentally, SERCA is a global commitment to catalyze and empower the community of those stewarding the world’s most important landscapes and ecosystems, improving management effectiveness through shared services and tools that strengthen the capacity of practitioners on the ground.
To date, SMART and EarthRanger have provided powerful tools for collecting, viewing, and analyzing conservation and management data, but these tools were independent and offered different types of insights. SERCA will bring the strengths of SMART and EarthRanger together in one integrated system. SERCA will provide critical tools like flexible data collection, in-depth analysis, access to real-time data streams, and powerful reports that will elucidate patterns in species distribution and movement, the nature of threats to wildlife, and the availability of resources. At the same time, this new alliance will utilise members’ global training and support networks to build the capacity needed to meet the Global Biodiversity Framework Target 3 of effectively managing the world's most biodiverse and ecologically important areas. SERCA will allow conservationists to focus on what matters most: protecting nature in the field and developing conservation strategies for the future.
This alliance builds on more than two decades of combined impact from the two initiatives, each having transformed conservation in its own right. Every day, SMART and EarthRanger collectively help protect wildlife and communities across more than 2,000 protected and conserved areas in over 100 countries by making it possible to manage threats and ecosystems more effectively.
Formed in 2011, SMART is the largest and longest-running conservation partnership of its kind, bringing together some of the world’s leading wildlife conservation organizations and establishing a standard for biodiversity monitoring, data collection, and data-driven decision making for protected and conserved area management. EarthRanger, celebrating its 10th anniversary this year, delivers real-time intelligence that connects teams and enables them to track wildlife, vehicles, personnel, and more, leading to better, faster decision-making. Together through SERCA, this alliance will lay the foundation for rapidly adopting new innovations—such as satellite imagery, drones, and AI—backed by standard management approaches that ensure technology translates into lasting impact on the ground.
“SERCA represents a leap forward in uniting proven practices with technology. By combining SMART’s strength in adaptive management and long-term reporting with EarthRanger’s real-time operational and analysis capabilities, we will give conservationists a complete system for protecting wildlife and people, while continuously improving how they work,” said Jes Lefcourt, Director of EarthRanger.
SERCA will go further than other technology could on its own by creating a unified suite of tools that will be easier to deploy, adapt, and maintain at scale. Whether conducting community surveys, monitoring wildlife and infrastructure, managing personnel, or analyzing years of data, conservation teams will be able to move seamlessly between the field, ranger posts, and command centers — with critical information at their fingertips every step of the way. Web-based, mobile, and offline desktop capabilities will support that continuity. The software will be built to fit the needs of each site, from the most connected to those operating fully offline or under data sovereignty restrictions. Existing deployments will continue without disruption, and users will have a clear path into the unified platform as it evolves.
“Through SERCA, we are creating the next generation of tools for protected and conserved area adaptive management, putting cutting-edge technology and access to a global support network into the hands of those working on the front lines of conservation. SERCA represents a massive step forward for the future of biodiversity protection, creating something bigger and more effective than what either of our initiatives could achieve alone,” said Dr. Cleo Graf, Executive Director of SMART. “This exciting new partnership will allow governments, communities, and other stakeholders everywhere to apply proven, data-driven approaches across entire protected area systems, making conservation work better and securing a future for nature.”
“The World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) applauds this important partnership and the integration of tools such as SMART and EarthRanger as being critical to scale the data-driven decision-making that is urgently required to meet global area-based conservation goals such as Target 3 of the Global Biodiversity Framework,” said Dr. Madhu Rao, Chair of the WCPA. “It’s a hugely important step that exemplifies the kind of coordination and alignment we need to make measurable progress in strengthening the ability of protected and conserved areas to achieve effective conservation outcomes.”
We invite governments, conservation organizations, technology partners, and local communities everywhere to join us in the partnership to shape and scale this effort. We invite all conservationists to share their input with us. SERCA will be a service and technology suite built for those on the ground, responsive to their needs and challenges. Please reach out to us at info@serca.org.
About SERCA
The SMART–EarthRanger Conservation Alliance (SERCA) brings together the members of the SMART Partnership—Wildlife Conservation Society, WWF, Zoological Society of London, Frankfurt Zoological Society, Re:Wild, Panthera, North Carolina Zoo, Wildlife Protection Solutions—and EarthRanger (a product of Ai2). Together, SERCA combines cutting-edge technology, deep expertise, and field-based capacity into one unified effort. Through its global partner network and training programs, the alliance helps nations and communities protect wildlife, enhance safety, and confront today’s most pressing conservation challenges.