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Despite declining national rhino poaching statistics, KwaZulu-Natal is becoming a new hotspot for these illegal activities.

Even though wildlife criminals the world over use money-laundering techniques to disguise the origin of their proceeds, there is only one case in South Africa in which money laundering related to poaching is being investigated. According to the Wildlife Justice Commission's July report - Dirty Money: The Role of Corruption in Enabling Wildlife Crime - tackling financial flows and recovering proceeds from these crimes is key to removing profits from criminality and preventing investments to perpetuate crimes. The report said: …

Police have confirmed the arrest of one of the five convicted rhino poachers who escaped from prison in Makhanda in October last year. "We can confirm the arrest and that he was involved in attempted poaching at one of the private game reserves," South African Police Service spokesperson Warrant Officer Majola Nkohli told talk of the Town. Seven men escaped from Grahamstown Correctional Facility in October 2022. One of them, convicted poacher Trymore Chauke was arrested at Seven Fountains around 7pm on Sunday 23 October.

'An incredible story of courage and survival that has now been obliterated' is how wildlife veterinarian Dr William Fowlds has described the killing this week of two orphaned survivors of a 2016 rhino poaching incident at Sibuya Game Reserve. In a bitter blow to the rhino conservation community, two rhinos who mothers were killed by poachers seven years ago were themselves killed by poachers on Tuesday April 4.

Western Cape police have arrested three men in separate incidents for possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition, and abalone.

In a poaching update of high-value species, namely elephants and rhinoceros in Namibia, Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) spokesperson Romeo Muyunda revealed that the elephant poaching cases have dropped from 101 recorded in 2015, to 50 in 2017, 27 in 2018, 13 in 2019, 12 in 2020, 10 in 2021 and only four in 2022. "The four poached elephants in 2022 include two in the Zambezi Region, one in the Kavango West Region, and one in the Kunene Region", - according to Muyunda. "We hope that these figures will continue to descend until we reach the zero-…

The trial of a former Kruger National Park ranger and a state veterinary technician accused of rhino poaching has been postponed to November 22 because the court dates of the accused's legal representative clash with another trial. The ranger, Rodney Landela, and state vet Kenneth Motshotso appeared in court on Tuesday for the trial, which was meant to run until Friday. Landela and Motshotso were arrested on July 27 2016 for the possession of two rhino horns, a rifle and ammunition.

Six years after two rhinos were killed and poached, a former Kruger National Park ranger and state veterinarian technician could soon hear their fate. Their trial dates have been set for Tuesday until Friday. Former ranger Rodney Landela and former state vet Kenneth Motshotso were arrested on July 27 2016. The pair were arrested for the possession of two rhino horns, a firearm and ammunition.

The Mozambican police in Maputo arrested two men in possession of 11 elephant tusks suspected to be intended for illegal ivory trafficking, the police announced on Tuesday. The two Mozambicans were arrested at their home, where they were keeping the tusks. The  National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) action was triggered after a complaint from the public.

The rhino poaching trial of six Zimbabweans, four of whom are allegedly in South Africa illegally, will proceed in the high court sitting in Makhanda on Thursday. Francis Chitiyo, 31, Trymore Chauke, 26, Micheck Chauke, 23, Simba Masinge, 23, Nhamo Muyambo, 28 and Abraham Moyane, 23, - all of whom live in East London - face some 38 charges related to the poaching of about eight rhino in the Eastern Cape between 2017 and 2018. They have all pleaded not guilty to the charges.

Botswana began removing the horns from its rhinos and moving them away from the iconic Okavango Delta as an unprecedented poaching crisis threatens their survival in the country. The government said that at least 56 of the animals had been killed by poachers in the past two years, marking the worst onslaught since Botswana’s black rhino population was wiped out in 1992 and the number of white rhinos dropped to just 27.

South Africa’s drive to use wild animals as commercial trade goods has been ratcheted up a notch with the appointment of a high-level panel to review the policies, legislation and practices of breeding, hunting and trading of elephants, lions, leopards and rhinos. The panel’s terms of reference and the people appointed by Environment, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Barbara Creecy make it extremely unlikely to support wildlife welfare and conservation. The appointment of the panel follows the almost surreptitious listing late last year of 32 wild animals under the…