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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 - 8 of 8
Saturday, 19 November 2022
Serra G 2022. Corruption aids rhino horn smuggling.

The Wildlife Justice Commission said a threat assessment on the state of rhino horn trafficking in the past decade showed that much was needed to fight the trade via law enforcement, policymakers and conservation. The assessment found that over the last decade, six countries dominated the supply chain as source, transit and destination locations and that a third of rhino horns were smuggled unconcealed, suggesting a potential reliance on corruption to move shipments along the supply chain. They found that large amounts of harvested horns have been diverted from legal…

Tuesday, 22 March 2022
Serra G 2022. Rhino poaching: the trade and the convictions.

Cape Town - Poaching continues to decimate the rhino population with 451 rhinos poached in South Africa last year, 327 of them from government reserves and 124 from private property.

Tuesday, 12 October 2021
Serra G 2021. Abalone smugglers sentenced while authorities say drugs are often linked to the trade.

Cape Town - Two men who were caught with R9 million rand worth of abalone have been sentenced to a year behind bars while authorities have warned this is still a very serious crime being committed and is often linked to the drug trade.

Saturday, 31 July 2021
Haynes D 2021. South African rhino poaching increased 50% this year, still lower than before pandemic.

There was a 50% increase in the number of rhinoceroses killed in the first six months of 2021 in South Africa compared to the same period last year, but the figure is still lower than pre-pandemic years, the country's government announced Saturday. Barbara Creecy, the Minister of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries, said 249 rhinos have been poached for their horns from Jan. 1 through the end of June. That's up from the 166 poached in the same time period in 2020, but still a marked decline from 2019, which saw 318 rhino poaching.

Tuesday, 20 July 2021
Shinana A 2021. Four caught with rhino horns.

Four people were arrested in the Kamanjab area after they were found with rhino horns.

Thursday, 24 June 2021
Shinana A 2021. Two nabbed for possessing pangolin scales.

According to police crime coordinator deputy commissioner Moses Simaho, the suspects were arrested after they tried to sell the scales to undercover officers at Epalela on Tuesday at 09:30. The pangolin products as well as cannabis were allegedly smuggled into the country from Angola without a permit from competent authorities in that country. "The two suspects have been arrested for possession of and dealing with controlled wildlife and dealing in prohibited dependence-producing drugs. We seized a bag containing cannabis whose value has not yet been determined and 2,22 pangolin…

Thursday, 17 June 2021
Taylor L 2021. Poaching declines in Tanzania following prosecution of ivory trafficking ringleaders.

Once known as the world's elephant killing fields, Tanzania appears to have halted the worst ivory poaching within its borders, making more than 2,300 arrests of poachers and traffickers over five years.

Thursday, 17 June 2021
Taylor L 2021. Tanzania's "Ivory Queen" denied release after appeal.

One of the world's most infamous ivory traffickers will remain in prison in Tanzania after an appeal judge sent her case back to a lower court. The high court accepted there were anomalies in the original written judgment against Yang Fenglan, but declined her attorney's application for her release. Between 2009 and 2014, poachers reduced Tanzania’s elephant population by 60%, according to a government census. In response, Tanzania developed a strategy of intelligence-led investigations.

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