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Namibian Wildlife Crimes article archive
This archive of published media articles about wildlife crime in Namibia aims to:
- provide easy public access to published information and statistics
- enable easy stakeholder access to articles
- provide a comprehensive archive of wildlife crime reporting in Namibia
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.
Explore your search results using the filter checkboxes, or amend your search or start a new search.
The Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism is currently conducting an assessment to determine the extent of rhino poaching. In light of the recent poaching incidents in the park, the ministry has also requested an urgent high-level meeting with the security cluster. To date, a total of 28 rhinos have been poached in Namibia. Out of these, 19 were poached in the Etosha National Park, while the remaining 10 were discovered during dehorning operations throughout the month of March.
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| NAM_2024_04_MEFT calls urgent meeting as 28 rhinos lost to poaching_NBC.pdf | 110.48 KB |
Zambezi Region's law enforcement and security forces are making significant strides against wildlife crime. Today, seven individuals from Zambia were apprehended in the Kapani area with 18 tusks, along with the discovery of a .375 caliber firearm in their possession. These tusks, believed to be sourced from poached elephants in Botswana, mark the latest incident in a series of arrests within the past three weeks. The total number of intercepted elephant tusks in this region over the last three consecutive weeks now stands at 59.
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| NAM_2023_12_Security cluster in Zambezi crackdown on wildlife crime_NBC.pdf | 219.7 KB |
Police in the Zambezi Region apprehended a 37-year-old man found in possession of 24 elephant tusks during a joint operation with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism last night. The tusks are alleged to have come from Botswana, where the elephants were poached, and entered Namibia through the Batubaja Area in Linyanti Constituency. All 24 tusks were found loaded into a vehicle with an expired disc licence driven by a suspect who was allegedly called to provide transport after the car in which they were transported initially ran out of fuel.
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| NAM_2023_11_Zambezi police investigate poaching of elephants_NBC.pdf | 133.71 KB |
The Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism intercepted a truck full of unprocessed timber last weekend in Windhoek, which was intended for export to South Africa. 1500 planks on the truck were confiscated and the transport permit was temporarily suspended pending further investigations to establish where the timber came from and if it was legally acquired. The Ministry introduced a moratorium on timber harvesting, transportation, marketing, and exporting in 2018.
By building these new campgrounds, ZimParks wants to prevent a repeat of the 2013 massacre of more than 120 elephants who were poisoned by poachers. Farawo said when the elephants were poisoned, it was difficult for ZimParks to move from the main camp to the site. He added that having on-site housing would also make it easier for rangers to respond to wildlife affecting nearby communities. One of the closest communities to the park is the district of Tsholotsho, which is about 10 kilometers away. Farawo said building Makona will ensure rangers can protect elephants.
Rural communities in the Okavango Delta in Botswana have accused the country's government of not engaging them in efforts to combat rampant poaching in the area. Since 2018, more than 100 rhinos have been gunned down by poachers in the Delta and communities in the region say the situation might have been better had the government engaged them in anti-poaching work.
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| BOT_2022_03_Botswana residents want to be included in anti_poaching efforts_The Independent.pdf | 1.72 MB |
Four thousand kilograms of pangolin scales were seized by authorities in Cameroon on what experts are calling a "major trafficking route".
Five suspects have been arrested for illegal possession of ivory and a live Pangolin. They were arrested in separate operations conducted on Sunday by the Uganda Wildlife Authority-UWA and the Uganda Police in Lira and Agago Districts.
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| UGA_2021_02_Five arrested in possession of ivory_live pangolin in Northern Uganda_The Independent.pdf | 431.51 KB |
Pietermaritzburg police intercepted and arrested a man transporting rhino horn worth R1.2 million this morning.
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| SA_2020-10_R1.2 million rhino horn bust in PMB_Eyethu News.pdf | 225.66 KB |
The former head of the global convention on international wildlife trade says that current rules surrounding legitimate enterprise “don’t cut it” to prevent future pandemics and that wildlife crime should be confronted with the same international legal force that tackles human trafficking and terrorism. John Scanlon served as Secretary-General of the Secretariat overseeing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) from 2010 until 2018. CITES is affiliated with the United Nations Environment Programme…