Search results

Our analysis of wildlife crimes data, supported by numerous interviews, finds evidence of systematic failure by Nigerian law enforcement and the judicial system to hold wildlife poachers and traffickers accountable.

Officers of Mozambique's National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) have seized eleven elephant tusks in a house in the western city of Tete, according to a report in Sunday's on-line issue of the independent daily "O Pais".

The Year of the Tiger is not a good one for the creatures themselves, a global animal welfare report states. It also finds South Africa to be at the heart of the big cat crisis.

Rumphi Police in north Malawi have arrested six for illegal possession of a live pangolin.

The Kruger National Park has a major rhino-poaching crisis, but that's just one of many mounting problems - and it's extremely worrying.

Anti-poaching groups have blamed socio-economic problems for the rise in poaching and snaring in various protected areas such as game reserves. Speaking after a recent sweep of snares at Tala Collection Game Reserve, located between Easton and Camperdown in KwaZulu-Natal, Lawrence Reed, founder of Rave Rhino and Wildlife Project on Sunday, 16 January, said they had seen an increase in the number of snares being discovered at the game reserve.

Cycads, an ancient group of plants dating from the time of the dinosaurs, are threatened globally by extinction. The plants are also coveted by collectors, especially rarer specimens. In South Africa, a hotspot of cycad diversity, this demand has given rise to a harmful illicit market that has placed dozens of species at risk. Thousands of cycads have been dug up from the wild, with poachers using a legal cycad market to launder their harvests.

The chairman of the Pangolin Conservation Guild of Nigeria (PCGN), Prof Olajumoke Morenikeji, has lamented that developed countries have turned Nigeria into a hotspot for wildlife trafficking, describing it as a shame. She noted that wildlife trafficking "is a multi-billion naira illicit act" that has been depleting indigenous animal species in the Nigerian environment.

The US on Monday announced visa restrictions on eight DR Congo nationals involved in wildlife trafficking, in the latest whip on supposed illegal revenues fuelling conflict in the central African nation. The eight people, believed to be connected business and political players in the country, are accused of having a hand in trafficking of ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horn; products of endangered species.

The Kisutu Resident Magistrate's Court on Wednesday re-sentenced "Queen of Ivory," Chinese Yang Feng Clan and two Tanzanians to 15 years imprisonment each for leading organized crime on 860 pieces of elephant tusks, which are government trophies, valued at over 13bn/-.

Cape Town - Game rangers, vets, casino staff, construction and transport industry workers, as well as customs and other government officials, have been identified as role-players in the ecosystem of illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products according to a report by the South African Anti-Money Laundering Integrated Task Force.

Police who arrested two men carrying a rhino horn on a highway near Witbank allegedly demanded a R30,000 bribe to release them.

Arusha - Tourism players have pumped a multimillion shillings into an extensive anti-poaching programme designed to protect the priceless wildlife heritage into the country's wild animals-richest Serengeti National Park.

In a Daily Maverick webinar on Wednesday, Dr Luthando Dziba, the new CEO of South African National Parks, said there may be fewer than 3,000 rhinos in the Kruger Park for the first time - despite the park authority spending millions on rhino protection.

Maputo - The Inhambane Provincial Court in southern Mozambique has sentenced a 51 year old Chinese citizen, Liu Rong Wu, to 14 years imprisonment, for his involvement in an environmental crime consisting of an attempt to smuggle about nine kilos of dried seahorses out of the country, reports the independent television station STV. Liu had packed the seahorses, which are legally protected, and intended to ferry them to China where they would be used in the fraudulent racket known as "traditional Chinese medicine".

Eleven years ago today, Dawie Groenewald, a little-known ex-policeman turned hunting safari operator, was arrested on charges of masterminding a lucrative rhino horn trafficking network involving professional hunters, vets and a pilot. A police spokesperson described the case at the time as "a huge stride in our undying efforts to thwart rhino poaching". The charges brought against Groenewald involved illegal hunting and the alleged killing of more than 50 of his own rhinos, dealing in rhino horns, money laundering, racketeering and fraud.

To the rangers who tracked him, he was known as Big Foot, the rhino poacher whose large barefoot prints were often spotted leading in and out of the Kruger National Park.

A group of self-proclaimed reformed poachers in the districts of Rukungiri, Mitooma and Kanungu have cried out to government demanding income-generating projects. Members constituting the group are from areas neighbouring Queen Elizabeth National Game Park in Bwambara Sub- County, Rukungiri District, Kiyanga Sub-County, Mitooma District and Kanungu District. They say "life is becoming harder unlike when they used to poach."

The Nigeria Customs Service (NSC) recently announced the seizure of huge wildlife products including elephant tusks and other endangered species. And in Lagos, among some wealthy people, no party is complete without a display and barbecue of some protected animals, as seen in some trending videos on social media. It should worry the authorities that our country is fast becoming a huge jungle.

The Court of Appeal has upheld the 30-year imprisonment sentence imposed on poacher, Ng'waja Serengeta, for unlawful possession of three pieces of elephant tusks valued at 15,000 US dollars (about 34.8m/-), which are government trophies.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi announced on Saturday that, for the third consecutive year, no elephants have been poached in the Niassa National Reserve in the far north of the country, or in the Gorongosa National Park in the central province of Sofala.

"Meanwhile, on July 25, 2021 at Chatseka area, Mutawatawa, Murewa, police also arrested Joseph Kabunze (67), Perfect Kabunze (29), Chatseka Mapuranga (39) and Makwanya Kahwiti (29) for unlawful possession of ivory." The arrest led to the recovery of 4 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 12,5kg valued at US$2 635.

A court in Garsen, Tana River County has sentenced three men to 15 years in prison each for poaching. In the ruling made on Thursday, the court also imposed a fine of Sh3 million for each of the men on three accounts. Sharif Ngala (39), Kingi Charo (25) and Baraka Thoya (20) pleaded guilty to poaching 140 dik-diks, three teramuks and porcupine meat before senior principal magistrate Paul Rotich.

Police are urging residents in coastal cities or towns to assist in protecting endangered marine life. This comes after positive information from a member of the public led to the arrest of two men for illegal possession of abalone valued R28 000-00 in St Francis Bay today. On Wednesday, 07 July 2021 at about 06:40, it is alleged that a resident alerted a private security company about suspicious people, who were busy loading bags into a navy Toyota Avanza at Shark Point in St Francis Bay. A private security company dispatched a patrol vehicle.

A Voi court has sentenced three people found guilty of poaching 187 dikdiks in Tsavo East National Park to 16 years in prison each. In the ruling made on Monday, the court also imposed a fine of Sh2.2 million. Kaviha Charo, Katana Unda and Bugo Suluhu will serve their jail terms at Manyani Maximum Security Prison in Voi, Taita Taveta County.

Three suspected poachers arrested with 187 dik-diks in Tsavo East were on Monday charged at the Voi Law Court.

The killing of two elephants in Kalacha this week has once again shone the spotlight on rampant poaching in Marsabit County, which is threatening to wipe out wildlife in the region. Authorities recovered two rifles and four rounds of ammunition in a security operation following the incident. County Police Commander Martin Kibet said a bullet obtained from one of the carcasses would be subjected to ballistic testing. The two elephants were killed when they strayed from Marsabit Forest via Hurri Hills into Kalacha. A third elephant was rescued by Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS)…

New evidence supplied by the US government links two Kenyans implicated in Sh570 million ivory smuggling to notorious Liberian poacher and ivory trafficker Moazu Kromar. Documents filed in a Mombasa court claim Kenyan businessman Abdulrahman Mahmoud Sheikh alias Said Juma Said and his son Sheikh Mahmoud Abdulrahman received instructions from Mr Kromar to facilitate ivory smuggling. The Liberian poacher was extradited to the US in 2019, where he is facing ivory-trafficking charges. Mr Mahmoud, his son and six other Kenyans are facing ivory smuggling charges in Mombasa.

Kasane - Rhino poaching in Botswana is getting worse, and the government is not helping matters in any way due to its split attitude on the crisis. On the one hand, the government of President Mokgweetsi Masisi - in power since 2018 - acknowledges the seriousness of the crisis but, when it suits it, the administration ambivalently denies any calamity and neglects taking decisive action.

Rhino poaching declined sharply in South Africa last year, according to the latest official data, and the data also shows that rhinos on state land were far more vulnerable than those in private hands. In South Africa, if you are a rhino on a state reserve, your chances of getting whacked by a poacher are about nine times greater than if you roam a private one.

Shocking official statistics have emerged which show that the world's single-largest population of rhinos - those living in the flagship Kruger National Park - has been slashed by between 66% and 70% over the past decade, mainly due to the unrelenting wave of butchery by international hornpoaching syndicates.

Kenya's black rhino population has doubled from less than 400 in 1985 to 794 by the end of 2019. Kenya is home to the last remaining two Northern White Rhinos in the world. "But, the Northern White Rhinos are endangered. There are only two existing in the world that are only found at the Ol Pejeta conservancy. We are making sure the white rhinos are saved and we produce more. We must protect these animals," said Tourism Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala during a webinar commemorating World Rhino Day last month.

A ministerial panel is reviewing policies on international trade in rhino products. Any move to legalise this trade would be a disaster - for the remaining population of wild rhinos, for South Africa's tourism and for
impoverished people living near our wildlife reserves.

How technology, innovation and partnership are changing the fate of Africa's threatened megafauna.

Wild animals are back. Kangaroos bounding through the streets of Melbourne, elephant herds passing through Indian villages, jackals in Johannesburg, leopards in Mumbai, wild boar in Bergamo and Verreaux eagles catching thermals above a silent Cape Town. And of course, inevitable cartoons of humans in surgical masks staring forlornly at animals playing on the sidewalk. Is lockdown good news for creatures - or for poachers?

A total of 33,386 poachers have been arrested in the past five years, thanks to the intensified anti-poaching campaign initiated by the National Anti-Poaching Task Force (NTAP). Mr Nduhiye noted that in the past five years the task force managed to intercept various trophies including 14,741 pieces of ivory tusks, 25 rhinoceros horns, 10 live pangolins and 962 tortoises.