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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.
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Poaching accused Dawie Groenewald is allegedly conducting wildlife operations in one of South Africa's neighbouring countries. Reports from Botswana state that Groenewald had been spotted camping with clients near the Kwando River in Namibia under an alias. He is currently out on bail in two separate cases in Limpopo and Mpumalanga linked to rhino poaching.
An unregulated trade in pelargonium, a protected species, is causing environmental destruction across Lesotho. Five people were recently found guilty of illegally dealing in pelargonium. They were fined M200 (equivalent to R200). In a scathing judgment, magistrate Thabang Tapole found serious flaws in the government's permitting system and said laws should be updated to effectively deter people from breaking environmental laws. He also highlighted how local harvesters are paid "peanuts" for a product that sells at high prices internationally.
African countries are estimated to lose $17 billion to illegal logging each year. This is part of a
global market with an economic value of $30 to $150 billion. The net profit from the illegal
charcoal trade alone in Africa is estimated to be as much as $9 billion, "compared to the [$]2.65
billion worth of street value heroin and cocaine in the region." High-value timber species are in
immense global demand, with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
reporting that Africa’s share of rosewood exports to China rose from 40 percent in 2008 to 90