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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“Navara”, the codename used by Simon Ernesto Valoi, first appeared in our crosshairs in 2013 when we were researching rogue South African trophy hunters directly involved in rhino poaching and trafficking in the Kruger National Park. The article Rhino trafficking: Down the rabbit hole at Kruger did not mention Navara, but intelligence agents we spoke to did. Oxpeckers journalists kept pecking away at Navara over the years.
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SA_2024_09_A decade of pecking at a poaching kingpin_Oxpeckers.pdf | 464.31 KB |
As the world celebrates Rhino Day on Thursday, anti-poaching organisation Saving the World has called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to acknowledge allegations of bribery against suspended KwaZulu-Natal regional court president Eric Nzimande. World Rhino Day seeks to create awareness of and find new ways to stop poaching, and keep the endangered species from extinction.
Authorities in Mozambique have arrested "Navara", aka Simon Ernesto Valoi, and an associate in connection with allegedly attempting to sell rhino horns in the country’s capital, Maputo. For many years Navara has had the reputation of being one of the most notorious rhino poaching syndicate leaders in Mozambique. He was arrested with an associate, Paulo Zukula, on July 26 2022 in possession of eight rhino horns.
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MOZ_2022_08_Notorious rhino kingpin Navara under arrest in Mozambique_Oxpeckers.pdf | 562.74 KB |
Two Mbire poachers were yesterday sentenced to a combined 20-year jail term by Guruve magistrate Rumbidzai Mugwagwa over possession of 34,12kg of elephant tusks.
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ZIM_2021_10_Mbire poachers jailed 20 years_NewsDay.pdf | 343.06 KB |
Three Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) officials are battling for life at a hospital in Harare after they were recently severely assaulted by suspected poachers in Mushumbi, Mashonaland Central province.
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ZIM_2021_08_Poachers axe ZimParks rangers_NewsDay Zimbabwe.pdf | 95.48 KB |
A plot by a jealous Guruve man to get his ex-wife and her boyfriend imprisoned by planting ivory on her hit a snag after he was arrested for possession of ivory.
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ZIM_2021_07_Jealous man plants ivory in ex_wifes toilet_News Day.pdf | 161.36 KB |
Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta says some of the 120 suspects arrested last year for wildlife crimes were repeat offenders who were out on bail for similar crimes. “It is discouraging when a suspect is arrested for a crime today and the next day commits the same crime again. We do not want to tell justice what to do, but a repeat offender should not be let out on bail,” Shifeta said yesterday.
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NAM_2019-02_No bail for repeat offenders_Namibian Sun.pdf | 87.18 KB |