Safaricom, Chainalysis Join AI Hunt for Wildlife Trade Cash

Safaricom has joined a coalition of technology and payments firms that will use artificial intelligence and blockchain tracking to cut off the financial networks powering the illegal wildlife trade. The telecom giant will deploy AI across M-Pesa, the mobile-money platform it runs in Kenya, to flag transactions linked to poaching and trafficking. The move was announced under Prince William's United for Wildlife taskforce, which also brought in Google, Meta, TikTok, and Alibaba to scrub wildlife listings from their platforms.

Safaricom's parent company Vodafone and affiliate Vodacom are participating in the same AI-integration push. The system will scan M-Pesa transaction patterns for signs of illicit activity, from small-scale bribes to cross-border payments tied to rhino-horn or ivory shipments. On the crypto side, Chainalysis, TRM Labs, PayPal, and the exchange Luno have pledged to track blockchain wallets and alternative payment routes used by smugglers.

The financial stakes are large. The United Nations Environment Programme estimates the illegal wildlife trade generates up to $23 billion a year. Rhino horn, which sells for as much as $60,000 a kilogram on the black market, is a key driver. The Southern White Rhino population fell to a few hundred animals in the 19th century, recovered to roughly 17,000 through conservation efforts, and is now under renewed pressure from organized poaching syndicates that operate across borders.

"What we see from the private sector today is a recognition that the illegal wildlife trade is both an environmental and a business issue," said David Fein, co-chair of United for Wildlife.

The coalition represents a shift in how companies approach the problem. Instead of writing checks to conservation groups, they are embedding detection tools into their core infrastructure. For Safaricom, that means treating M-Pesa's transaction data as a surveillance asset. For Chainalysis and TRM Labs, the work extends techniques already used in crypto market analysis to follow illicit crypto flows.

British Airways and Heathrow Airport are also joining the effort, launching public awareness campaigns to help travelers identify and report wildlife products at transit points. The goal is to close the loop between digital detection and physical enforcement.

The taskforce said the new commitments build on earlier work by financial institutions that have already signed on. The companies are now expected to begin deploying the AI systems and blockchain analytics over the coming months.