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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.

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Displaying results 1 - 7 of 7
Friday, 25 August 2023
Mojela A 2023. Female pangolin and baby rescued from poachers in the Northern Cape.

A mission to rescue a pangolin confiscated in Kuruman in the Northern Cape led to a Limpopo foundation sponsoring a flight to the Northern Cape to have it treated at Provet Animal Hospital in Hoedspruit. Provet Animal Hospital said on Facebook that a female Temminck’s ground pangolin was confiscated from the illegal wildlife trade and upon assessment, the veterinarian in Kuruman discovered that she was clutching a newborn pup, a little male, still wrapped in the afterbirth.

Thursday, 13 July 2023
Mojela A 2023. Poaching kingpin Big Joe to Polokwane Correctional services.

This was during his second appearance in the Lenyenye Regional Court after he was arrested in May. Nyalungu’s defence team requested that he be transferred to a Polokwane correctional facility due to difficulty to obtain his chronic medication in Thohoyandou where he was in custody until then. The court agreed and Joseph has been moved to Polokwane. Nyalunga was arrested on Saturday, May 27 in Kampersrus after a car chase involving the police. He allegedly has a long history of poaching and was first arrested in 2011 after being on police’s radar for several months.

Wednesday, 5 July 2023
Mojela A 2023. Five alleged rhino poachers arrested in the Kruger Park.

It was successful day for multi-task team of detectives from the Endangered Species Unit, SANParks, Focused Conservation Solutions, Hoedspruit SAPS, and Hoedspruit Farm Watch when they made a breakthrough arresting five suspects for rhino poaching.

Wednesday, 9 February 2022
Hewitt A 2022. Notches on lions' teeth reveal poaching in Zambia's conservation areas.

UCLA study shows the strange markings are the result of trapped big cats chewing through wire snares, indicating these animals are injured at far higher rates than previously assumed.

Tuesday, 25 May 2021
Tshuma N 2021. Abalone poacher fined R50 000 for R2.4 million haul.

Cape Town - The Department of Environment, Forestry and Fisheries has joined the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation in welcoming the sentencing of a 49-year-old man for the illegal possession and transportation of abalone valued at R2.4 million. Moegamat Amien Fakier was sentenced to a fine of R50 000 or two years' imprisonment when he appeared in the Khayelitsha Priority Court on Thursday last week.

Thursday, 20 May 2021
Tshuma N 2021. Collectors drive a spike in theft of indigenous plants in the Western Cape.

Cape Town - CapeNature says it has noted a worrying spike in the theft of indigenous plants in the province. It said it has begun to notice that crimes relating to the theft of endangered indigenous plants in the province had begun to steadily increase, even under strict Covid-19 restrictions. CapeNature spokesperson Petro van Rhyn said while there were several reasons why the illegal trade had picked up recently, the most notable reasons pointed to the huge demand by plant collectors to own the naturally occurring plants, native to South Africa and…

Thursday, 2 July 2020
Wernick A 2020. Rhino poaching in South Africa declines during coronavirus lockdown.

In South Africa, the COVID-19 pandemic and strict government-imposed lockdown have led to an unexpected consequence: a major decline in rhino poaching. More than 80% of African rhinos remaining in the world are in South Africa, making it the hotspot for rhino poaching. The number of rhinos killed for their horns has been slowly declining over recent years, but the pandemic and lockdown have quelled rhino poaching even more.

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