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Namibian Wildlife Crimes article archive

This archive of published media articles about wildlife crime in Namibia aims to:

  • provide easy public access to published information and statistics
  • enable easy stakeholder access to articles
  • provide a comprehensive archive of wildlife crime reporting in Namibia

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.

Explore your search results using the filter checkboxes, or amend your search or start a new search.

Displaying results 1 - 23 of 23
Thursday, 9 November 2023
Bisong EM 2023. Conservationists applaud Nigeria's action to confront illegal wildlife trade.

Nigerian environmental activists have hailed the federal government's decision to publicly destroy a sizable amount of wildlife products that were seized, such as crocodile skins, pangolin scales, leopard skins, and python skins, as a clear indication of the end of an era marked by various forms of impunity against the safekeeping of wildlife.

Wednesday, 2 November 2022
Swaby N 2022. 2 foreign nationals sentenced in Seattle for trafficking ivory and rhinoceros horn.

The multi-billion-dollar industry of illegally trafficking wildlife was front and center in federal court on Tuesday morning. The Homeland Security investigation led to two foreign nationals being arrested in Edmonds in November of 2021. On Tuesday, Herdade Lokua learned he would spend the next 20 months in prison, and Jospin Mujangi was sentenced to 14 months. The investigation led to the seizure of $3.5 million worth of elephant ivory, white rhinoceros horn, and pangolin scales.

Tuesday, 30 August 2022
Bega S 2022. Direct jail sentences a win in fight against South Africa wildlife trade.

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. 

Sunday, 1 May 2022
Bega S 2022. Halfmens: Four succulent poachers jailed for seven years in Northern Cape.

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.

Friday, 3 December 2021
Bega S 2021. Following the wildlife traffickers' money.

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.

Wednesday, 24 February 2021
Grobler J 2021. Calls for a special wildlife crime court in Namibia.

Namibia's over-burdened criminal justice system is struggling to keep up with rhino-poaching court cases, some of them delayed by up to six years. Is a special wildlife crime court the answer? 

Saturday, 8 August 2020
Bega S 2020. Four pangolins rescued in a week from illegal trade.

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.

Tuesday, 5 May 2020
Bega S 2020. An increase in poaching expected as criminal networks try to take advantage of lockdown.

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).

Tuesday, 21 April 2020
Bega S 2020. Wildlife trafficking soars as illegal dealers use unchecked hubs in southern Africa.

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:…

Wednesday, 24 April 2019
Grobler J 2019. Troubled times for Namibian wildlife.

There are worrying signs that Namibia's legendary wild game numbers may be plummeting.

Monday, 25 March 2019
Grobler J 2019. Troubled times for Namibian wildlife - conservancy stock dwindling.

There are worrying signs that Namibia’s legendary wild game numbers may be plummeting. Four years ago the Namibian Professional Hunters Association raised an alarm about the lack of huntable elephant bulls in the Caprivi region, where the number of communal conservancies had grown from one in 1997 to 15 today.

Wednesday, 21 February 2018
Grobler J, Sharife K 2018. Christo Wiese’s Namibian rhino deal under scrutiny.

How did 13 rhino bulls from the Kruger National Park end up on a hunting farm owned by a reclusive Russian billionaire in Namibia? John Grobler and Khadija Sharife follow the trail

Tuesday, 7 February 2017
Grobler J 2017. Chinese 'mafia boss' turns to timber in Namibia.

Xuecheng Hou, a wealthy Chinese businessman linked to wildlife contraband trafficking, has emerged as a major player in the illegal trade in rare African timber in sub-Saharan Africa. John Grobler investigates.

Friday, 2 December 2016
Grobler J 2016. The horn scam at Windhoek's airport.

The Namibian authorities don’t seem to be in any hurry to shut down a rhino horn smuggling syndicate that has infiltrated security at Windhoek’s airport, writes John Grobler.

Tuesday, 4 October 2016
Grobler J 2016. Namibia diaries: the good, the bad, the ugly.

Depending on your views about legal trade in wildlife products, the past week was either a good week or a very good week for Namibian conservation, writes John Grobler.

Thursday, 15 September 2016
Grobler J 2016. A mysterious dead hand driving Namibia’s poaching.

After a two-year investigation, John Grobler exposes the totem-based networks facilitating transnational rhino horn smuggling and defeating the criminal justice system’s pursuit of suspects.

Monday, 11 July 2016
Grobler J 2016. The epicentre of Namibia's rhino poaching.

John Grobler visits Okahao, a sleepy settlement near Etosha National Park at the centre of the poaching plague threatening the world’s last viable population of critically endangered black rhinos.

Wednesday, 1 June 2016
Grobler J 2016. Bling king accused in Namibian rhino poaching.

The second recent court development followed the sensational arrest of a young, up-and-coming Windhoek businessman named “Mox” Namwandi. Who is he? John Grobler tracks his connections.

Friday, 23 October 2015
Grobler J 2015. Inner workings of a Chinese poaching syndicate.

Court evidence reveals the typical methdology deployed by one of five organised crime syndicates believed to be active in Namibian wildlife trafficking, reports John Grobler.

Friday, 17 July 2015
Grobler J 2015. Caught in the crossfire: how cattle and Chinese mining interests are killing off Namibia’s black rhinos.

A 10-month-long investigation by John Grobler uncovers the political and commercial agendas driving the world’s largest black rhino population towards extinction.

Friday, 6 March 2015
Grobler J 2015. Namibia's national soccer medic linked to rhino poaching and murder.
Monday, 19 January 2015
Grobler J 2015. Wildlife staff probed in Kunene rhino poaching.

The Save the Rhino Trust (SRT) has launched an internal investigation after it was presented with a letter in mid-December outlining possible collusion between some staff members and poachers who have killed at least 18 critically endangered Kunene black rhinos since late 2012. The crisis at the SRT is however just part of a larger one in anti-poaching law enforcement and natural resource management in the so-called “Big Three” communal conservancies - Palmwag, Abenab and Sesfontein - in southern Kunene.

Thursday, 20 November 2014
Grobler J 2014. Strange death of a rhino protector.

How did ‘Boxer’ die? Why are dead rhinos being found in the area his team patrolled? John Grobler digs up strange secrets surrounding the deaths of black rhinos in the Kunene region of Namibia.

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