EIA International

What EIA International does

EIA International (legally Environmental Investigation Agency UK) is a UK-registered charity (No. 1182208) founded in 1984 and headquartered in London, with a regional presence in The Hague. It investigates transnational environmental crime — wildlife trafficking, illegal logging and timber trafficking, illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances (CFCs, HFCs), plastic pollution, commercial whaling, and fossil fuel–driven emissions — through undercover fieldwork, intelligence analysis, and policy advocacy directed at governments, customs and enforcement agencies, and international treaty bodies (CITES, UNFCCC, Montreal Protocol, EU).

The organization's technology portfolio centers on the Global Environmental Crime Tracker, an interactive Power BI–based platform launched in 2021 that aggregates seizure, arrest, and prosecution data across wildlife, timber, and refrigerant trafficking; a prosecution dashboard funded by the UK Government's IWT Challenge Fund was added in October 2023. Supplementary products include the "What on Earth?" podcast, a public-facing reports library dating to 1986, a crowd-sourced data submission portal, and an AI-powered tiger stripe pattern recognition database developed in partnership with the UK's Alan Turing Institute. EIA's investigative output includes 23 investigations across 18 countries and 137 intelligence briefings shared with law enforcement and government agencies.

EIA is funded primarily through individual donations, the "Nature Protector" recurring giving program, charitable grants (including institutional donors and UK Government challenge funds), legacy giving, and fundraising events (London Marathon, "Win for Nature" lottery). It operates as a non-commercial mission-driven entity with no products or services sold; revenue mechanics are donor-centric rather than transaction-based. The organization is governed by a Senior Management Team and Board of Trustees, and collaborates with legally independent EIA US, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in Washington DC.

Name

EIA International

Legal name

Environmental Investigation Agency UK

Website

https://eia-international.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1984

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

EIA International is a UK-registered charity founded in 1984 that investigates transnational environmental crime (wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, refrigerant gas trade, plastic pollution) through undercover fieldwork and intelligence-led advocacy targeting governments, enforcement agencies, and international treaty bodies.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

London

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Others

Revenue model

1. Donations and Fundraising: EIA International operates as a registered UK charity (No. 1182208) funded primarily through public donations, individual giving programs, lottery ('Win for Nature'), and fundraising events including marathons and sponsored challenges. The organization also accepts major grants and donations from philanthropists, with specific appeals for supporting undercover investigators.
2. Charitable Grants: EIA receives funding from institutional donors and was previously funded through the EIA Trust before it merged into EIA UK in 2019-2020. The organization acknowledges donors who contributed to the creation and maintenance of the Crime Tracker, with the prosecution dashboard funded by the UK government through the IWT Challenge Fund.
3. Legacy Giving: EIA promotes gift-giving through wills ('Legacy of Love' program), allowing supporters to leave bequests to the organization as part of estate planning.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels5 records

Marketing channels9 records

Core offering

EIA International is a non-profit environmental investigation and campaigning organization that conducts covert undercover investigations into transnational environmental crime — including wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, plastic pollution, illegal refrigerant gas trade, and commercial whaling — and turns the resulting evidence into intelligence briefings for law enforcement, policy advocacy at international treaty bodies, and public awareness campaigns. The organization also operates the open-access Global Environmental Crime Tracker (a Power BI data platform), produces the "What on Earth?" podcast, and publishes investigative reports funded by donations and grants.

Product overview

EIA International operates as an environmental investigation and campaign organization rather than a traditional software product company. The primary technology product is the Global Environmental Crime Tracker, an interactive Power BI-based platform that tracks environmental crime data across wildlife, timber, and climate-harming substances. This core offering is supplemented by the What on Earth? podcast series, downloadable reports and publications, and a data submission system for crowd-sourced crime information. The organization also developed an AI-powered tiger stripe pattern recognition database in partnership with the Alan Turing Institute. The portfolio represents investigative and advocacy tools rather than commercial software products.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Global Environmental Crime Tracker Interactive Power BI-based open-access platform that monitors, collects, and analyses data on illegal trade in wildlife, timber, and climate-harming refrigerant gases, with dashboards, maps, and a prosecution dashboard for researchers, enforcement agencies, and civil society.
• What on Earth? Podcast
• Undercover Environmental Investigations Covert field investigations conducted by EIA's Intelligence and Investigations Unit into wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, plastic pollution, illegal refrigerant trade, and commercial whaling, producing evidence for use in legal proceedings and international advocacy.
• Intelligence Briefings and Capacity Building Intelligence briefings, case support, and hands-on training delivered to law enforcement, customs, and government agencies, plus capacity-building for civil society partners in countries most threatened by environmental crime.
• Investigative Reports and Publications Published library of investigative reports, briefings, and policy analysis on climate super pollutants, forests, wildlife, and ocean issues, distributed to governments, media, partner NGOs, and the public via the EIA website.

Quantifiable outcome

• 137 intelligence briefings shared with law enforcement and government agencies
• +8 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

AI capability2 records

Feature1 record

Partnerships

17 partnerships are on record, tiered minor and core.

• ADM Capital FoundationminorOthersContributed data to the Global Environmental Crime Tracker project, which includes data contributions from multiple NGOs and partner organizations tracking environmental crime globally.
• C4ADSminorOthersPartner organization contributing data to the Global Environmental Crime Tracker tracking illegal trade in wildlife, timber, and climate-harming gases.
• TRAFFICcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerMajor wildlife trade monitoring network and EIA partner, collaborating on environmental crime tracking and enforcement efforts.
• EAGLE NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEcology, law, and governance network actively collaborating with EIA on wildlife crime enforcement initiatives across Africa, Asia, and Europe.
• Fauna and Flora InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerConservation organization partnering with EIA on biodiversity protection and environmental crime issues.
• FreelandcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAnti-trafficking organization working with EIA on wildlife crime enforcement and intelligence sharing.
• Wildlife Conservation SocietyminorOthersContributed data to the Global Environmental Crime Tracker initiative.
• The Alan Turing InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEIA partnered with the UK's national institute for data science and artificial intelligence to develop a tiger stripe pattern database (as unique as human fingerprints) to help identify animals in the wild and in illegal trade.
• United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEIA engages with UNFCCC processes and climate negotiations, advocating for action on methane, HFCs, nitrous oxide, and fossil fuel phase-out.
• Montreal ProtocolcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEIA has been instrumental in the Montreal Protocol process since exposing illegal CFC trade in the 1990s. The organization contributed to adoption of the Kigali Amendment to phase down HFCs and has received two UN Ozone Awards.
• CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEIA attends CITES meetings, submits reports and briefings, and played a pivotal role in securing the 1989 international ban on elephant ivory trade. Also works on protecting rosewood, cedar, and other endangered timber species.
• European UnioncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEIA worked to establish the EU Timber Regulation (EUTR) in 2013 and continues to advocate for enforcement. Also engages with EU on HFC phase-down, methane regulation, and plastic pollution policy.
• Animal Welfare InstitutecoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerAWI has been an important partner of EIA since its founding in 1984, providing strong support and encouragement. EIA founders publicly congratulated AWI on its 75th anniversary in 2026.
• OceanCareminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartnered with EIA on joint report 'Clean-ups or clean-washing?' regarding plastic pollution clean-up technology and its environmental impacts.
• Beyond Fossil FuelscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCivil society organization that EIA partners with to advocate for fossil fuel phase-out and transition to renewable energy.
• Climate Action NetworkcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerGlobal network of NGOs working on climate change that EIA partners with for advocacy and campaign coordination.
• Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation TreatycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerEIA works with this initiative to advocate for international treaties to phase out fossil fuels.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves8 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Greenpeace International: Greenpeace is a much larger environmental advocacy NGO operating across climate, forests, oceans, and wildlife with global campaign reach. It is broader in mandate and substantially better resourced than EIA, but operates in the same advocacy-driven, evidence-led campaign model.
• Environmental Defense Fund (EDF): EDF is a major environmental advocacy organisation combining science, economics, and policy advocacy across climate and ecosystems. It overlaps with EIA on climate super-pollutants and methane campaign work but operates at far greater scale and with a US-centric base.
• WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature): WWF is the largest global wildlife and conservation NGO with operations across all of EIA's campaign areas (wildlife, forests, climate, oceans). It is a broader incumbent but shares the wildlife-trade enforcement and policy-advocacy mission that defines EIA.
• Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC): NRDC is a large, well-resourced environmental advocacy organisation with global climate, wildlife, and policy programmes. It operates a similar evidence-based advocacy model but at significantly greater scale and with a broader policy portfolio than EIA.

Direct peers

• IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare): IFAW operates globally on animal welfare and wildlife trade issues, including policy advocacy and on-the-ground enforcement support. Its scope and donor-funded NGO model closely mirror EIA's wildlife portfolio and cross-border campaign approach.
• WildAid: WildAid runs campaigns against illegal wildlife trade through investigations, media, and celebrity-driven awareness — closely mirroring EIA's undercover-investigation-and-advocacy model in the same target domain (ivory, pangolins, tigers, rhino horn).
• Oceana: Oceana runs investigative, policy-driven ocean conservation campaigns — directly comparable to EIA's Ocean campaign work on plastic pollution, whaling, and the Global Plastics Treaty. Both rely on evidence-led advocacy targeting governments and international bodies.
• TRAFFIC: The wildlife trade monitoring network (a WWF-IUCN joint programme) is a direct operational peer to EIA — both produce intelligence on illegal wildlife trade, partner with enforcement agencies, and contribute data to shared platforms. TRAFFIC is already a strategic partner of EIA, indicating direct functional overlap.
• Fauna and Flora International: FFI is one of the world's oldest international conservation organisations and a current strategic partner of EIA. It operates in overlapping biodiversity, wildlife trade, and forest crime domains with a comparable UK/Europe-anchored NGO structure.
• ClientEarth: ClientEarth is an environmental law charity that uses legal action and policy advocacy to drive environmental outcomes. EIA's Senior Lawyer and Legal and Policy Specialists place it in the same legal-advocacy peer set, particularly around EU environmental law and plastics policy.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• YouTubeyoutube.com/c/EnvironmentalInvestigationAgency
• Facebookfacebook.com/environmentalinvestigationagency
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/environmental-investigation-agency
• Instagraminstagram.com/eia_news
• TikToktiktok.com/@eia_uk
• Xx.com/eiainvestigator

Compliance1 record

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles9 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about EIA International