Illegal wildlife trade has become a major global crime, valued at billions of dollars annually, and threatens biodiversity conservation efforts.  Efforts by wildlife conservation authorities to fight this crime are often hampered by inadequate tools and skills for definitive identification of wildlife trophies and bush meat and plant products.  The Barcode of Wildlife Project Kenya (BWP-K) seeks to create a high-quality public reference database of standardized DNA barcodes for identifying endangered and illegally traded priority animal and plant species, and their look-alike species. Illegally traded plant and animal products are often intercepted with damaged or missing morphological keys used to identify them, hence reducing the likelihood of detection and successful prosecution of criminals. The purpose of this database being created by BWP-K is to enable easy and timely identification of crime exhibits by comparing their DNA barcodes with the reference library in investigations and prosecutions of wildlife crimes.

We have created a data pipeline that enables sample and data tracking, with fields that identify the collector’s name, date of collection, a well-documented chain of custody, voucher ID, tissue barcode and correct taxonomic identification. These are stored in a secure Field Information Management System (FIMS).  We are using well established genetic loci that have delivered considerable success in species identification.  For animals, the focus for library construction and identification is mitochondrial COI (cytochrome c oxidase subunit I) gene. We are using the chloroplast genes, rbcL (ribulose-bisphosphate carboxylase) and matK (maturase K), which are widely used, in compliance with the requirements for the BARCODE tag in GenBank.   Data analysis is done using software tools in the Geneious software suite (Biomatters Ltd), with links to the Field Information Management System (FIMS) and LIMS. This enables association of the barcodes with voucher specimens and metadata. Progress in the establishment and application of the BWP-K library will be discussed.