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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Cape Town - Swift response by the Hawks National Intervention Unit (NIU) following a tip-off has led to the arrest of six suspects in connection with the discovery of abalone worth more than R2.8 million. The suspects, aged between 26 and 60, were expected to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate's court on Tuesday morning facing charges relating to possession of abalone and managing a drying facility.
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SA_2023_04_Hawks smell something fishy_6 held in abalone bust_IOL_2023.pdf | 156.25 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.
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SA_2023_02_Two arrested for illegal possession of abalone_The South African.pdf | 167.43 KB |
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says the transnational organised crime networks targeting large conservation areas across Southern Africa remain a serious concern. The WWF was reacting to the 2022 rhino poaching statistics which saw a 40% decline compared to 2021 in the Kruger Park and other national parks across the country.
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SA_2023_02_WWF concerned about transnational organised crime targeting iconic rhinos_IOL.pdf | 162.17 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.
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SA_2023_02_Police on the hunt for rhino poachers who killed two rhino_The South African.pdf | 317.53 KB |
Four people were arrested in the Kamanjab area after they were found with rhino horns.
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NAM_2021_07_Four caught with rhino horns_The Namibian.pdf | 580.6 KB |
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…
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NAM_2021_06_Two nabbed for possessing pangolin scales_The Namibian.pdf | 361.88 KB |
Namibia has enjoyed a good reputation for its nature conservation, but there is evidence the illegal trade in wildlife products is thriving. The smuggling hotspot is the Zambezi border region, where five Southern Africa countries intersect. Hongxiang Huang travelled to Zambezi to investigate.
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Oxpeckers_Spotlight on Zambezis poaching problem.pdf | 252.1 KB |