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.
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A new report has found that the population of Javan rhinos has decreased since 2021 as a result of poaching. The report by the IUCN also found that the population of black rhinos saw an increase in Africa. Nonprofit International Rhino Foundation, which synthesized the data in the report, has now helped fund a tool to monitor and visualize illegal rhino horn trade globally. The tool aims to aid conservationists, NGOs and governments in informing and enforcing stricter policies.
Police are keeping mum about the extradition of Li Song, wanted in connection with the use of poison in the illegal wildlife trade. Zimbabwe’s national police force appears reluctant to pursue Li Song, a Chinese citizen allegedly at the centre of what wildlife activists say is a high-powered poaching network that uses cyanide to kill animals in the country’s game reserves. Li was arrested in 2024 by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) for allegedly importing large quantities of cyanide fraudulently and storing the toxic substance in unsafe locations.
Surveying elephants is hard, risky work. Dedicated biologists have been doing this challenging task across Africa for decades. Systematic surveying started in the late 1960s but has been sporadic, as access to remote areas takes logistical planning, funding and well-trained teams. Surveys can easily be derailed by civil unrest or lack of available survey teams. Consequently, the information on the numbers of elephants across Africa is spotty. Even for a single population, survey effort and coverage can change over the years.