This archive of published media articles about wildlife crime in Namibia aims to:
Public access to information is a vital component of ensuring community engagement in prevalent issues. Wildlife crime is one of the pressing environmental issues of our time.
Wildlife crime investigations are generally covert operations requiring utmost confidentiality to succeed. Investigations and prosecutions in complex cases may take months or even years to complete. For this reason, the information that can be released to the public without compromising cases is often limited. Nonetheless, the Namibian government strives to share as much information as possible with the public.
The Namibian media has welcomed this approach and regularly publishes statistics and feature articles on wildlife crime. These are entered into the database at regular intervals, creating a comprehensive archive of wildlife crime reporting in Namibia.
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Environmentalists in Namibia have accused local wildlife officials of hiding the real extent of rhino poaching in the Etosha National Park, which holds the highest concentration of black rhinos in the world. The Ministry of Environment recently acknowledged that rhino killings at the park quadrupled during the first quarter of 2024. Namibian police apprehended two suspects Sunday for the killing of an adult female black rhino and a medium-sized male calf black rhino at the park's waterhole earlier that day.
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NAM_2024_04_Namibia rhino poaching on rise in first quarter of 2024_Voice of America.pdf | 28.05 KB |
Namibian authorities say poachers killed 87 rhinos last year, almost double the number killed in 2021 in a country that is home to the world's largest free roaming black rhino population. Conservationists say poachers seeking rhino horns for Asian markets are targeting Namibia's commercial farms. Simson Uri-Khob, chief executive officer of the Save the Rhino Trust, told VOA there have been almost no incidents of rhino poaching in Namibia's rhino conservancies for the past 30 months.
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NAM_2023_01_Namibian authorities concerned about increase in rhino poaching_VOA News.pdf | 226.38 KB |
A Police operation code name 'Clarion' last week arrested 127 illegal immigrants from neighbouring Zambia who were suspected of engaging in the illegal harvesting of protected wood species in the Zambezi region.
Namibia Police (Nampol), Zambezi regional Commander, Andreas Shilelo told Confidente the immigrants were charged under the Illegal Immigrant Act and given forty-eight hours to leave the country and were subsequently deported. "Most of them we arrested, where not found harvesting timber but we took
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NAM_2022_11_Illegal Timber harvesting plagues Zambezi region_Confidante.pdf | 224.39 KB |
A carcass of a white bull rhino was discovered on the October 20 at a private farm in the Windhoek district. It is believed the rhino was poached between the October 16 and 20. According to a police report, investigations were carried out at the scene of the crime to which, "bullet fragments from the animal indicate the animal was killed for its horn," the police report reads. In a similar report a case of hunting of specially protected game has been opened at the Seeis police station in the Windhoek district.
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NAM_2022_10_Two Rhinos found dead and dehorned_Confidente.pdf | 284.46 KB |
While Africa is seeing a drop in the rate of rhinoceros poaching, Namibian wildlife authorities say they are seeing a surge in rhino killings in the southern African nation. Conservationists say poachers seeking rhino horns for Asian markets are targeting Namibia’s commercial farms. Save the Rhino Trust CEO Simson Uri Khob said there are reports that syndicates of rhino poachers from South Africa are operating in Namibia. He said poaching cases are rising, especially in Etosha National Park and commercial farms. "It's a problem," Khob said.
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NAM_2022_10_Cross border syndicates implicated in surge in rhino üoaching_Confidante.pdf | 481.11 KB |
A six-year jail sentence for a man who smuggled 1 100 Emperor scorpions, 42 Bell's hingeback tortoises and a water lizard. Seventeen years imprisonment for elephant poachers in the Kruger National Park. A 10-year jail sentence for a pangolin poacher.
Four succulent poachers have been sentenced to seven years imprisonment for trying to steal 14 endangered Halfmens (Pachypodium namaquanum) succulent plants within the |Ai|Ais/Richtersveld Transfrontier Park in the Northern Cape.
A wildlife trafficker softly cried upon being sentenced to 10 years imprisonment for illegal possession of and trying to sell a pangolin. Zimbabwean national Tichaona Chifamba (41) appeared and pleaded guilty before Regional Magistrate Victor Ball in the Secunda Regional Court on Thursday, March 24. He was caught in an intelligence-driven operation on August 3 last year while peddling a Temminck's pangolin in the parking lot of A and E Hyperworld in Trichardt.
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SA_2022_03_Pangolin peddler caught near Secunda_gets 10 years in prison_Ridgetimes.pdf | 626.4 KB |
South Africa's diverse wildlife means it plays a "devastating role" as both source and transit country for wildlife trafficking. The most popular animal parts include rhino horn, abalone, pangolin and ivory, which is moved through South Africa to the East.
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SA_2021_12_Following the wildlife traffickers money_MailandGuardian.pdf | 445.05 KB |
It's clear why the illegal wildlife trade exists. Where there's consumer demand for products from endangered species, there are bound to be networks seeking to profit from that demand. But what about the motivations of individual offenders? TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade NGO, decided to simply ask them. The researchers interviewed 73 people in South African correctional centers, who had been convicted of crimes related to rhinos, abalone, or cycads (ancient palm-like plants that have been called "the world's most endangered plants").
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SA_2020-12_Convicted poachers in South Africa explain why heavy policing is ineffective_Forbes.pdf | 350.26 KB |
In just over a week, Ray Jansen and his team have recovered four trafficked pangolins - three of them pregnant - in sting operations from the illicit trade in various parts of South Africa. In total, 11 people were arrested by a team of dedicated and specialised law enforcement officers.The operations are a sign, says Jansen, of the African Pangolin Working Group, that pangolin poaching has resumed under Level 3 lockdown restrictions.
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SA_2020-08_Four pangolins rescued in a week from illegal trade_IOL.pdf | 456.93 KB |
Poaching incidents could increase during the lockdown period as criminal networks try to take advantage of the closing of parks, perceiving a reduced presence of law enforcement now dealing with the Covid-19 emergency. “We are in receipt of intelligence that known poaching organisers operating across southern Africa intend taking advantage of the current situation,” said Sarah Stoner, director of intelligence at the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC).
Guyanese finches are almost always smuggled in hair curlers from Guyana to New York, while pig-nosed turtles are trafficked in high amounts, declared as a marine species, and flown from a regional Indonesian airport to Jakarta before flying to China. The greatest variation in wildlife trafficking in air transport doesn’t necessarily occur between regions but between the species or wildlife products trafficked, the specific methods used with the routes taken by wildlife traffickers heavily dependent on wildlife type, says the Runway to Extinction report:…