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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Botswana's government has presented to the ongoing CITES CoP-19 in Panama a detailed document on the country's efforts to contain rhino poaching which increased at least 100 fold between 2018 and 2020. The country recorded two rhino poaching incidents in the five years between 2012 and 2017 with zero incidents reported in 2012, 2014, 2015, and 2017.
Botswana' Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) has confirmed the recent arrest of a man found in possession of a live pangolin in the capital Gaborone. The department says the incident was reported to them by the Botswana Police, raising concern about the continued poaching of pangolins.
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BOT_2022_11_Botswana man arrested for possession of live pangolin_Independent.pdf | 277.61 KB |
Cape Town - A third prisoner who escaped from custody in Makhanda last week has been rearrested. Trymore Chauke was nabbed on Sunday after police received information about a possible escapee who was alleged to have been asking people for food in the farming community of Seven Fountains in Makhanda. A police task team immediately followed up on the lead and within 30 minutes Chauke was rearrested, police said. He escaped from the facility through a window with six other inmates last week. He was held in custody for rhino poaching.
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SA_2022_10_Third Eastern Cape prison escapee nabbed after begging for food in Makhanda_IOL.pdf | 179.45 KB |
A white rhino has reportedly been killed and dehorned by poachers inside the protected Khama Rhino Sanctuary (KRS) in Botswana. Two separate conservationists have reported about the killing. One conservationist told this publication that their sources inside the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) confirmed the incident. "Two weeks ago a white rhino was poached at Khama Rhino Sanctuary but they are denying it happened at their property but sources inside DWNP confirm it was indeed at KRS."
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BOT_08_Rhino killed at Khama Sanctuary_Sunday Standard.pdf | 437.09 KB |
SA National Parks (SANParks) says it is investigating a suspected poisoning incident in the Kruger National Park after the discovery of a buffalo carcass which appeared to have been laced with poison last Thursday. More than 100 dead vultures and a dead hyena likely to have fed off the carcass were also found on the scene.
Three men who had allegedly poached the four rhinos and were able to dehorn three of them, appeared in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate's Court on Monday July 4.
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SA_2022_07_Four Kruger rhinos killed_three dehorned_Lowvelder.pdf | 410.63 KB |
"The absence of tourists in conservation areas enables poachers to act more freely. In normal times, tourists act as additional 'eyes and ears' in conservation areas, and their presence deters poachers from acting, but the decline in tourism activity emboldened poachers," a UK government report on the impact of Covid-19 on poaching has said.
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BOT_2022_04_Increased movement in wildlife areas reduces poaching activities_Sunday Standard.pdf | 343.45 KB |
Poaching intensified over the past three years following the 2018 decision by the government to disarm the anti-poaching unit under the DWNP. The 100+ rhinos poached since the disarmament represents a 100+ percent increase in poaching incidents when compared to the previous three years when Botswana lost one rhino per annum in the preceding 2015, 2016, and 2017 when the unit had firearms. There were at least 12 rhinos poached in 2018, 29 rhinos in 2019, and over 50 poached by the end of 2020.
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BOT_2021_11_Botswana struggles with rising cases of rhino poaching_Independent Co.pdf | 716.01 KB |
The three Kruger National Park employees who were arrested for possession of rhino horns were granted bail in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate's Court last Thursday.
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SA_2020-11_Alleged rhino poachers granted bail_Lowvelder.pdf | 505.28 KB |
The Director of the Directorate of Intelligence and Security (DIS) Brigadier Peter Magosi has defended government’s decision to dehorn Botswana’s rhinos as an anti-poaching control measure. Magosi has said the dehorning of rhinos was the only way they could ensure protection of the animals from poachers.
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BOT_2020-07_Its better to show tourists a dehorned rhino than nothing at all_Magosi_Sunday Standard.pdf | 197.57 KB |
The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, has called on the Namibian police to enforce strict bail conditions to reoccurring poachers as many of the wildlife trafficking incidents that have been reported are mostly committed by criminals who have been released from police custody on bail. He said that because the poaching business in enticing and profitable, many of the suspects commit the same offense immediately after being released on bail as no one is carefully monitoring their movement and whereabouts.
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NAM_2019-09_Poachers roaming Namibian streets freely_Informante.pdf | 348.13 KB |