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.
Explore your search results using the filter checkboxes, or amend your search or start a new search.
Three Hurungwe men who captured themselves on camera killing an elephant using traditional weapons and dogs yesterday appeared before Kariba magistrate accused of hunting or removing any animal or part of the animal in a safari area without a permit. Francis Chigomararwa (30), Simeon Kezias (23) and Arthur Murimbika (24) all from Nyamakate area are also facing another charge of killing a buffalo.The accused were unlucky when a video went viral of them killing an elephant after setting their dogs on it before attacking it using spears and axes.
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ZIM_2024_16_Trio arrested for poaching_Newsday Zimbabwe.pdf | 191.01 KB |
"This award to the ranger team has come despite operating in the face of adversity, with the results of a positive growth population of rhino." "Under the protection of ATS, the rhino population in Save Valley Conservancy has seen a biological growth rate of 7%, this is above the 5% IUCN recommendation for game reserves protecting rhino, and maintained a poaching mortality rate of below 2%, also IUCN recommended," the WCPA statement read.
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ZIM_2022_07_Zim anti_poaching unit receives award_NewsDay.pdf | 481.69 KB |
A report by the South African government reveals a worrisome increase in the number of rhinos poached in 2021, as the decline attributed to the COVID restrictions is now being threatened with reversal. But is it too late to turn the tide?
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SA_2022_04_It is too late to save South Africas rhinos_Fair Planet.pdf | 334.73 KB |
Three Harare men, including a game ranger and a police officer yesterday appeared before magistrate Babra Mateko charged with illegal possession of 28 kilogrammes of ivory worth $700 000.
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ZIM_2022_04_Ranger_cop nabbed for illegal possession of ivory_NewsDay Zimbabwe.pdf | 170.07 KB |
The continued refusal by the government of Botswana to allow game rangers to carry firearms, coupled with the country's secrecy on poaching statistics and other wildlife data, is baffling conservationists. On 25 September, as Botswana marked a belated World Rhino Day, former president Ian Khama - a renowned wildlife conservationist - took to his Facebook page to share his thoughts.
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BOT_2021_12_Political rivalries flare in Botswana and animals pay the price_FairPlanet.pdf | 451.12 KB |
African governments have been urged to jointly fight wildlife trafficking by coming up with legislation and policies that curb the vice. Leading international wildlife conservation body, the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) on Tuesday told journalists attending a wildlife reporting training programme in Harare that laws should be crafted to impose stiffer sentences on wildlife poachers and traffickers. The participants were from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, South Africa, Botswana and Kenya.
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ZIM_2021_11_Africa urged to fight wildlife trafficking_NewsDay Zimbabwe.pdf | 360.21 KB |
A 24 percent decline in the number of white rhinos over the past decade has caused wildlife conservationists to panic over the future of the endangered pachyderms on the African continent. Despite concerted efforts made by most African states to protect their rhinoceros populations, an International Rhino Foundation (IRF) report has revealed that rhino numbers continue to drop due to poaching.
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AFRICA_2021-10_Continued African Rhino loses alarm conservationists_ FairPlanet.pdf | 75.19 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 |
Poaching has been the greatest threat to wildlife and might cause its extinction in different African countries including Zimbabwe, a wildlife expert has said. Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe president Emmanuel Fundira yesterday said, while game meat production can contribute to economic growth in the country, there was need to curb poaching activities. In a survey conducted in eastern Madagascar, it was revealed that 95% of those interviewed said they had eaten at least one protected species.
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ZIM_2021_10_Poaching a threat to Africas wildlife_NewsDay.pdf | 946.8 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 |
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 |
Six months into COVID-19 lockdown and with most southern African nations not having social safety nets for their citizens, there has been an uptick in wildlife poaching across the region.
Around the world countries are adjusting to what their "new normal" looks like in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. For rhinoceros conservationists in Africa, it means coping with fewer resources while fighting an increase in the risk of poaching. Illegal hunting is nothing new for the dwindling rhino species, but the pandemic has amplified the threat and left their future more uncertain than ever.
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Loneley planet_2020-09_How the pandemic threatens rhino conservation_Loneley planet.pdf | 860.93 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 |