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.
Explore your search results using the filter checkboxes, or amend your search or start a new search.
As the world returns to post-covid normality, so do its trade routes and the unfortunate consequence of increased wildlife trafficking, experts say.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
WORLD_2023_04_Wildlife trafficking could return to pre_pandemic numbers_Getaway.pdf | 449.22 KB |
In an unrelated incident, an integrated operation led to the arrest of two suspects in Gansbaai on Friday, 17 February 2023. The team set up a vehicle checkpoint on the R43 between Gansbaai and Stanford and stopped a suspicious minibus taxi. They searched the vehicle and the occupants and confiscated 3608 units of abalone. This has an estimated to have a street value of R1.4 million.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_02_Two arrested for illegal possession of abalone_The South African.pdf | 167.43 KB |
The police in the Eastern Cape are searching for poachers who shot, killed, and dehorned two rhinos on a safari farm in Paterson on Wednesday evening, 1 February.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_02_Police on the hunt for rhino poachers who killed two rhino_The South African.pdf | 317.53 KB |
A 23-year-old man, Rich Ricardo Chauke, was sentenced to nine years imprisonment after rangers apprehended him with a rifle and an axe in Kruger National Park.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2022_04_Poacher with rifle and axe in Kruger Park sentenced to prison_Getaway.pdf | 458.84 KB |
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.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2022_03_Pangolin peddler caught near Secunda_gets 10 years in prison_Ridgetimes.pdf | 626.4 KB |
As Malawi registers a drop in ivory and rhino horn trafficking, it has noticed an increase in pangolin poaching with related arrests having tripled between 2019 and 2020.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
MAL_2022_03_Pangolin trafficking on the rise in Malawi_Getaway.pdf | 484.28 KB |
Each year in South Africa the African Pangolin Working Group (APWG) retrieves between 20 and 40 pangolins through intelligence operations with security forces. These pangolins are often-traumatised and injured and are admitted to the Johannesburg Wildlife Veterinary Hospital for extensive medical treatment and rehabilitation before they can be considered for release. In 2019, seven rescued Temminck’s pangolins were reintroduced into South Africa’s Phinda Private Game Reserve in the KwaZulu Natal Province. Nine months on, five have survived.