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.
Environmentalists in Namibia have accused local wildlife officials of hiding the real extent of rhino poaching in the Etosha National Park, which holds the highest concentration of black rhinos in the world. The Ministry of Environment recently acknowledged that rhino killings at the park quadrupled during the first quarter of 2024. Namibian police apprehended two suspects Sunday for the killing of an adult female black rhino and a medium-sized male calf black rhino at the park's waterhole earlier that day.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
NAM_2024_04_Namibia rhino poaching on rise in first quarter of 2024_Voice of America.pdf | 28.05 KB |
Vietnamese court sentences 36-year-old man to 12 years in prison for drug trafficking rhino horns in Angola.
O Serviço de Investigação Criminal deteve um caçador furtivo que se tinha instalado no Parque Nacional da Quissama e abatia animais como elefantes e gazelas, que depois comercializava no mercado informal da Mutamba, em Luanda.
Luanda: SIC detains poachers who settled in the Quissama National Park and lived off the sale of the animals they slaughtered The Criminal Investigation Service detained a poacher who had settled in the Quissama National Park and killed animals such as elephants and gazelles, which he then sold at the informal market of Mutamba, in Luanda.
A 35-year-old Vietnamese citizen was arrested at Luanda International Airport, accused of trafficking 3.6 kilograms of ivory, concealed in candy wrappers.
Detido vietnamita no Aeroporto 4 de Fevereiro por tráfico de marfim dissimulado em embalagens de rebuçados Um cidadão vietnamita, de 35 anos, foi detido no Aeroporto Internacional de Luanda, acusado de traficar 3,6 quilogramas de marfim, dissimulados em embalagens de rebuçados.
Quiçama Park administrator denounces that individuals with money have "encouraged" poachers. Lack of personnel and transport cited as a reason for poor enforcement. Park has just over 100 staff, but needs at least 600. In 2021, the Government presented a project to stop poaching in the country.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
ANG_2022-12_Illegal hunting in Quicama is spurred on by traffickers with financial power_NovoJornal.pdf | 298.79 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?
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2022_04_It is too late to save South Africas rhinos_Fair Planet.pdf | 334.73 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.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
BOT_2021_12_Political rivalries flare in Botswana and animals pay the price_FairPlanet.pdf | 451.12 KB |
The Criminal Offenses Investigation Directorate (DIIP) detained in flagrante two nationals in possession of 10 rhinoceros horns that would be sold for four million Kwanzas, in the Nambambi neighborhood, on the outskirts of the city of Lubango, Huíla province, this Thursday said. fair to the police.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
ANG_2021_10_PN detained two men with 10 rhino horns that they intended to sell for 4 million Kz.pdf | 449.65 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.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
AFRICA_2021-10_Continued African Rhino loses alarm conservationists_ FairPlanet.pdf | 75.19 KB |
Cameroonian police say they have for the first time during the pandemic seized parts of an estimated 2,000 pangolins poached in Cameroon and neighboring Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Police say travel restrictions had slowed trafficking of the endangered anteater to Asia, where its meat is considered a delicacy and the scales are used in traditional medicine. At least 12 bags of Pangolin scales and leopard skin are in a police warehouse at Nlonkak, a neighborhood in Cameroon's capital, Yaounde.
Kenya's Wildlife Service says that for the first time in 21 years, not a single rhinoceros was poached in the country's national parks in 2020. To maintain the progress, it is conducting the first ever wildlife census and placing mobile container housing in parks for rangers.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
KEN_2021_06_Kenya Looks to Maintain Zero Rhino Poaching Record_Voice of America_English.pdf | 433.17 KB |
The Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) detained seven poachers in the Bicuar National Park, in Huíla, who were hunting, mainly for elephants, to later sell the ivory. Among the detainees is a park inspector.
Two Angolan citizens, aged 22 and 39, were arrested, together with a 69-year-old Namibian, in the Namibian region of Omusati for the illegal killing of a giraffe.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
NAM_2021_04_Angolans arrested for illegal killing of a giraffe_Novo Jornal.pdf | 189.32 KB |
The Criminal Investigation Service (SIC) detained a national citizen for allegedly slaughtering elephants and selling ivory, in the municipality of Dembos, Bengo province, the director of the institutional communication and press office of the SIC-general, informed the Novo Jornal. of criminal investigation Manuel Halaiwa.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
ANG_2021_03_50 year old man arrested for ivory trafficking and elephant slaughter_Novo Jornal.pdf | 195.78 KB |
Botswana, confronting an unprecedented rise in poaching, has refuted reports by former President Ian Khama that at least 120 rhinoceroses have been killed in the last 18 months. Instead, the government says, wildlife crimes have dropped by 70 percent since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
BOT_2021_03_Botswana Denies 120 Rhinos Poached in 18 Months_Voice of America.pdf | 402.45 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.
Botswana's National Assembly has rejected a call to rearm its game rangers that was driven by a surge in rhinoceros poaching in recent years. Guns were taken away from the rangers in 201, but an opposition party lawmaker had moved a motion to rearm the wildlife officers.
Botswana has decided to re-arm its wildlife rangers as the southern African country battles increased cases of poaching. In the last six months, at least 17 poachers have been killed in gunfire exchanges with the army. The government had disarmed wildlife rangers in 2018, saying that under the law, only the military was allowed the use of firearms during anti-poaching patrols. With the country losing 56 rhinoceros to poachers in the last two years, the government is reconsidering that approach. Wildlife and Tourism …
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
BOT_2020-08_Botswana Moves to Rearm Rangers as Rhino Poaching Intensifies _Voice of America_English.pdf | 952.87 KB |
Kruger National Park, South Africa - Officials at South African National Parks say cooperation with neighboring Mozambique has been a key factor in reducing rhinoceros poaching in the famous Kruger National Park. Kruger is home to the world's largest wild rhino population, and has proven a tempting target for poachers who for years jumped the park’s borders.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2020-02_South Africa_Mozambique Cooperation Reduces Rhino Poaching _Voice of America.pdf | 251.05 KB |