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.
The Congo rainforest is home to one of Africa's least-known and most threatened monkeys: the golden-bellied mangabey. Golden-bellied mangabeys form extraordinarily large troops of dozens of individuals, and field observations reveal a complex social structure reminiscent of that of humans. The species faces significant threats from habitat loss, hunting and illegal trade, with experts pushing for stronger legal protections, including an upgrade from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I listing.
The recent seizure in Thailand of 48 lemurs and more than 1,200 critically endangered tortoises endemic to Madagascar underscores the global scale of wildlife trafficking networks that use Thailand as a transshipment hub. The operation was aided by intelligence from a joint transnational investigation between Thai law enforcement agencies and international antitrafficking organizations working to dismantle global wildlife trafficking networks spanning Asia, Africa and South America.
Large-scale commercial operators are evading Liberian forestry regulations by illegally processing wood destined for export on-site in forests. Timber milled in forests with chainsaws is legally restricted to the production of boards by artisanal loggers for sale on the domestic market, but reporting by Liberian newspaper. The Daylight and research by U.S.-based NGO Forest Trends has found large-scale operators producing thicker blocks of high-value wood for export.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
LIB_2024_04_New illegal logging threatens Liberias forests amid vague ban_Conservation News.pdf | 3.23 MB |
Police and wildlife department officials in Malawi have arrested two men suspected of having killed an elephant in Kasungu National Park in the country's west.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
MAL_2024_04_Malawi police arrest elephant poachers in Kasungu National Park_Mongabay.pdf | 217.19 KB |
One of Algoa Bay’s most valuable resources is being poached and plundered at an alarming rate. Nelson Mandela Bay has experienced a string of perlemoen-related incidents over the past few days, with experts in the field saying the illegal trade of this protected shellfish is now at an all-time high.
The Skukuza regional court on Friday sentenced a Mozambican national Joshua Mongwe to six years' imprisonment for poaching-related offences. The accused, 29, pleaded guilty to the offence and was subsequently convicted of trespassing in the Kruger National Park, contravention of Immigration Act, possession of ammunition.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_12_Man found with rifle in Kruger National Park gets six_year jail term_Herald Live.pdf | 148.94 KB |
Gqeberha police arrested a 28-year-old man on Wednesday after allegedly discovering perlemoen with an estimated street value of R3m in the bakkie he was driving.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_11_Man_28_ found with perlemoen worth R3m_Herald Live.pdf | 187.89 KB |
Gauteng police have seized meat carcasses hijacked from a delivery truck, guns and ammunition, blue lights and signal jammers at a property in Alexandra, Johannesburg. An elephant tusk was also found at the 7th Avenue premises during Tuesday's operation, said police spokesperson Col Dimakatso Nevhuhulwi.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_08_Elephant tusk_meat carcasses_guns and blue lights seized in Alex bust_Herald Live.pdf | 259.5 KB |
The Gqeberha-based economic protected resources team under the serious organised crime Investigation unit of the Hawks arrested a 43-year-old man on Friday for possession of perlemoen. The suspect joins his 10 co-accused, previously arrested in Algoa Park in May for allegedly being in possession of perlemoen, as well as running a yshing operation without a permit.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_08_Perlemoen suspect arrested after evading arrest for two years_Herald Live.pdf | 270.23 KB |
Ten suspects arrested for allegedly running an illegal perlemoen operation appeared in the Gqeberha magistrate’s court on Monday. Acting on a tip-off, the Hawks' Economic Protected Resources team in Gqeberha followed up on information about perlemoen activities at a residential premises in Algoa Park. Surveillance was conducted and law enforcement was granted a warrant to execute a search on Thursday last week, leading to the discovery of an alleged illegal operation.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_05_Ten in court for possession of perlemoen_Herald Live.pdf | 290.01 KB |
Bulk shipments by sea accounted for most of the illegal wildlife parts seized by authorities around the world in 2022. The data, from U.S.-based nonprofit C4ADS, also show that seizures of elephant ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales haven’t yet returned to pre-pandemic levels. However, the decline isn’t uniform across all countries, with China's late reopening from the pandemic this year indicating there might be an increase in trafficking in 2023, especially of ivory. C4ADS has called on law enforcement officials to focus on investigating…
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
WORLD_2023_03_Wildlife trafficking gradually returns after pandemic lull_mostly by sea_Mongaby.pdf | 868.66 KB |
The Wilderness Foundation has offered a reward in an effort to put the brakes on the recent spate of rhino poaching in the Eastern Cape.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_03_Wilderness Foundation offers reward to stop Eastern Cape rhino poaching_Herald Live.pdf | 307.41 KB |
Two rhinos that survived a poaching attack at Schotia Safaris Private Game Reserve, near Nanaga, nearly 10 years ago were killed by poachers on Thursday. After disabling the pair of male and female white rhinos in the attack, the poachers hacked off their horns with pangas before making their escape.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_02_Schotia rhinos Bonnie and Clyde killed by poachers and dehorned_HeraldLive.pdf | 414.04 KB |
The Skukuza regional court on Thursday convicted and sentenced a man who had been arrested in the Kruger National Park on three separate occasions to an effective 32 years' imprisonment for poaching-related offences. Forster Lubisi, 43, was convicted of three counts of trespassing, two counts of possession of a prohibited firearm with a serial number obliterated, possession of ammunition, possession of a dangerous weapon, killing of a rhino and possession of an unlicensed firearm. He pleaded guilty to the crimes.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2023_01_Third time unlucky for poacher as he is sentenced to 32 years in jail_HeraldLive.pdf | 274.95 KB |
Two men were arrested for the possession of stolen firearms, ivory and other property on Friday in Cape St Francis.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2022_11_Men nabbed with stolen firearms and ivory_HeraldLIVE.pdf | 248.71 KB |
Poaching has more than doubled this year in South Africa’s Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park, the birthplace of white rhino conservation. Conservationists say poaching syndicates have turned their attention to this and other parks in KwaZulu-Natal province because rhino numbers in Kruger National Park, the previous epicenter of rhino poaching, have been drastically reduced, and private reserves around Kruger are dehorning their animals. Hluhluwe-Imfolozi is a very challenging game reserve for anti-poaching patrols to defend, exacerbated by leadership issues in Ezemvelo, the…
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2022_10_Poaching surges in the birthplace of white rhino conservation_Mongabay.pdf | 11.44 MB |
Rhino conservation has received a major boost with the recent Gqeberha sentencing of a gang convicted of conspiring to poach rhino. The September 22 sentencing of the Chitlongo Three in the Gqeberha Regional Court, the first achieved under National Environmental Management Act "conspiracy to poach" legislation, gives SA lawmakers a lethal new weapon to pursue suspects who have often escaped prosecution in the past because of a lack of evidence.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2022_10_Rhino poaching conspiracy ruling boosts conservation efforts_HeraldLive.pdf | 490.73 KB |
Poisons like cyanide can be a deadly weapon for poachers, allowing them to kill dozens of animals without needing access to firearms or the backing of criminal syndicates. Wildlife poisoning is on the rise across Africa, targeting elephants as well as pushing endangered vultures toward extinction. A new study says Zimbabwe, which a decade ago witnessed some of the deadliest mass poisonings of elephants, has developed a sound basis for curbing poisonings by tightening laws to criminalize intent to use poison to kill wildlife.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
ZIM_2022_09_As poachers poison wildlife Zimbabwe finds an antidote in tougher laws_Mongaby.pdf | 930.59 KB |
In late June 2002, the container ship MOL Independence docked at a Singapore port after a voyage of almost a month from Durban in South Africa. On board was a consignment which had been on a far longer journey. Beginning in an industrial area on the outskirts of Lilongwe, the capital of landlocked Malawi in southern Africa, the container was taken by road to the port of Beira in neighboring Mozambique and loaded onto a feeder vessel to Durban. According to the Bill of Lading, its contents were stone sculptures.
A three-year investigation has led authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo to 2 metric tons of ivory hidden in a stash house in the southern city of Lubumbashi. The tusks are valued at $6 million on the international market and estimated to have come from more than 150 elephants. The three people arrested in the May 14 raid are allegedly members of a major wildlife trafficking ring in the Southern African region.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
DRC_2022_05_Ivory from at least 150 poached elephants seized in the DRC raid_Mongabay.pdf | 397.68 KB |
At the peak of the rhino poaching war in South Africa in 2015 and 2016, poachers slaughtered nearly three rhinos a day. Although that rate has declined, the numbers are still disheartening and unsustainable, with poachers killing at least one rhino every day. Some conservationists have looked to drones as a potentially powerful tool in anti-poaching efforts, with the technology continuing to evolve. But experts say it isn’t at the level yet where it can meet the challenge, and that while it can be helpful, conservation efforts must continue to engage and educate local…
Two men have been arrested in Jansenville with 39 black bags of perlemoen worth about R432,000 and an illegal firearm in their possession.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2021_08_Two suspects caught with 39 black bags of perlemoen_Heraldlive.pdf | 159.2 KB |
The Quissama National Park, in Luanda province, has been the preferred area for the practice of poaching of various species there, informed, on Wednesday, the coordinator of the Project to Combat the Illegal Trade of Wildlife and Human Conflict and Wildlife in Angola.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
ANG_2021_07_Quissama Park tops list of poaching cases_Jornal de Angola.pdf | 181.53 KB |
One of the world's most infamous ivory traffickers will remain in prison in Tanzania after an appeal judge sent her case back to a lower court. The high court accepted there were anomalies in the original written judgment against Yang Fenglan, but declined her attorney's application for her release. Between 2009 and 2014, poachers reduced Tanzania’s elephant population by 60%, according to a government census. In response, Tanzania developed a strategy of intelligence-led investigations.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
TAN_2021_06_Tanzanias Ivory Queen denied release after appeal_Mongaby.pdf | 471.78 KB |
Once known as the world's elephant killing fields, Tanzania appears to have halted the worst ivory poaching within its borders, making more than 2,300 arrests of poachers and traffickers over five years.
A high-speed chase by the Gqeberha flying squad and a private anti-poaching unit resulted in the arrest of six people for the illegal possession of perlemoen on Tuesday morning.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2021_06_Six arrested and perlemoen worth R1.4m seized_HeraldLive.pdf | 441.12 KB |
Four men were arrested after allegedly being found in possession of perlemoen and diving equipment near Port Alfred on Tuesday. An off-duty Port Alfred police officer apprehended four men after allegedly catching them with about R13,000 worth of perlemoen. Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said the officer, based at a unit in Port Alfred, received information about possible perlemoen poachers in the Kasouga area.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
SA_2021_05_Four arrested for perlemoen poaching near Port Alfred_Heral Live.pdf | 446.42 KB |
In all, 11 nationals, including firearm suppliers, poachers and game vendors, were arrested last week in Luengue-Luiana National Park, Cuando Cubango province.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
ANG_2020-07_Dismantled poaching net and weapon snipers_Provinces_Jornal de Angola_Online.pdf | 244.75 KB |
The coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic has created a profound crisis for conservation efforts in eastern and southern Africa as a result of the sudden cessation of all international travel in a region where nature-based tourism and conservation are closely interdependent. The region’s unique wildlife populations and other natural assets — centered on spectacular landscapes such as the Serengeti and Okavango — underpin a multi-billion dollar 'wildlife…
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
Mongaby_2020-05_From crisis to solutions for communities and African conservation_Mongaby.pdf | 1.42 MB |
Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Director, Protocol and Public Affairs Colonel Tebo Dikole has this week slammed Botswana Police for talking and discussing BDF operational matters with the media and members of the public.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
BOT_2020-03_BDF hits at police over poaching incident_Weekend post.pdf | 352.74 KB |