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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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-…
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NAM_2023_01_Namibia records drastic drop in elephant poaching_Macau Business.pdf | 87.08 KB |
"In the last couple of weeks, we found in certain areas a marked increase in the number of snares and a zebra was just left to rot where it had died, caught up in the snare." "We need to ask people to walk regularly and look for the snares. Quite often, they will set the snares and then they don't return in time to see if the animal has been caught in the snare and the animal is just left to rot." The Msunduzi Municipality has also raised concern about the rise in poaching at the reserve in recent weeks.
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SA_2021_06_Concern over rise in poaching at PMB nature reserve_ECR.pdf | 317.63 KB |
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.
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MOZ_2021_06_ Police arrest two men with 11 elephant tusks_Macau Business.pdf | 110.37 KB |
Zambia is leading a push for African countries to obtain a CITES waiver that would allow them to legally export ivory stockpiles. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has an international ban on trade and sale of ivory and related products. Southern African countries have accrued huge stockpiles of ivory worth millions of dollars over the decades. The stockpiles mostly constitute ivory from elephants culled for conservation and ecological purposes.
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ZAM_2020-11_Zambia lobbies hard for ivory sales_Southern Times Africa.pdf | 407.37 KB |
Anti-poaching initiatives instituted by Zimbabwe are bearing fruits as the country recorded a 78 percent decline in rhino poaching incidents in the first six months of 2020 compared to same period last year. Statistics from the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) show that four rhinos were poached from January to June 2020. The figure for January - June 2019 was 19.
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ZIM_2020-10_Anti-poaching initiatives pay dividends_The Southern Times.pdf | 164.87 KB |
Zambia is exploring the possibility of domestically selling its US$100 million ivory stockpile.
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ZAM_2020-08_Zambia wants to sell US100m ivory_TheSouthernTimes.pdf | 331.59 KB |
Namibia has recorded a drastic reduction in poaching in the past three years because of improved response mechanisms. Most of the success is attributed to the Environment and Tourism Ministry's efforts to upscale law enforcement components of conservation. Environment and Tourism Minister Pohamba Shifeta said anti-poaching canine units (the Ministry of Environment and Tourism Dog Unit) had been deployed to good effect. "The Dog Unit is part of our anti-poaching initiatives.
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NAM_2020-07_Nam anti_poaching gets bite_Southern Times.pdf | 404.87 KB |
Much has been written about the decimation of rhino populations in Africa due to poaching. Due to COVID-19, the problem has worsened as gangs in Mozambique take advantage of the lack of tourists and guards in South Africa’s Kruger National Park, killing nine rhino already. Since lockdown, six rhino in Botswana have been slaughtered for their horn. Why do the poachers do it?
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SA_2020-05_A rhino poacher in Africa reveals why he kills the animals_NYpost.pdf | 852.39 KB |