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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It could have been the proverbial pot of gold. Instead, it became at best, an opportunity lost in the fight against transnational organized wildlife crime. On February 2, a Nairobi area court acquitted Hoang Thi Diu, a female of apparent Vietnamese/Chinese dual citizenship, of charges relating to the dealing and possession of 145 kilograms of ivory, rhino horn, lion's teeth, and claws. Objectively, and considering the evidence before the court, the verdict was not incorrect.
It was a mistake. Ten tons of ivory and 190 kilograms of rhino horn were sold over a seven-year period, according to the indictment. It was actually much more than that. Much, much more. Moazu Kromah, a Liberian national, had pled guilty in March to three charges relating to wildlife trafficking in Africa. In his letter pleading for leniency submitted to the Southern District of New York, he thanked the court for the opportunity to "give some information about myself and the circumstances that led me to make the mistakes which bring me before you."
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AFR_2022_09_African courts need to take the lead in trying traffickers_International Policy Digest.pdf | 748.55 KB |
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.
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SA_2021_05_Abalone poacher fined R50 000 for R2_4 million haul_IOL.pdf | 983.63 KB |
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…
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SA_2021_05_Collectors drive a spike in theft of indigenous plants in the Western Cape_IOL.pdf | 153.37 KB |
Five suspected elephant poachers escaped following re exchange with the members of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) anti-poaching team in the Shaile area of the Chobe National Park on March 16 afternoon.
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BOT_2020-03_Elephant poachers Botswana _Journal of African Elephants.pdf | 1.47 MB |
Illegal wildlife trade (IWT) has increased in profile in recent years as a global policy issue, largely because of its association with declines in prominent internationally trafficked species. In this review, we explore the scale of IWT, associated threats to biodiversity, and appropriate responses to these threats.
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Illegal wildlife trade Scale_processes_and governance.pdf | 515.96 KB |