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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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.
In 2020, a bank in Singapore found that one of its customers had paid $130,000 to a South African supplier for 11 cheetahs. Though the animals were transported directly from the source country to the destination country and never transited through Singapore, the money passed through the customer’s bank account here. The bank, which was not named by the authorities, filed a suspicious transaction report (STR) and terminated the customer relationship.
A suspect has been arrested after being found with two endangered pangolins inside his home in Kuruman in the Northern Cape.
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SA_2023_07_Two more pangolins rescued from trafficker_The South African.pdf | 201.17 KB |
Lion bones are used to replace tiger bones in fortified tiger wine and Traditional Chinese Medicines. Lion bones are also carved into jewellery. South Africa's legal trade of lion bones to Asia has opened up a fast growing illegal trade of the animal carcass. On Friday, a 43 year old man was arrested for the illegal possession of lion bones destined for Asia.
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SA_2023_06_Lion bones destined for Asia discovered in mans lugguage_The South African.pdf | 351.16 KB |
This past weekend, police have seized large quantities of abalone in the Eastern Cape and Free State with both consignments allegedly heading to Bloemfontein. In the latest arrest, a 46-year-old suspect was apprehended and police recovered abalone worth over R1 million.
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SA_2023_06_Police seize R1million worth of abalone in Makhanda_The South African.pdf | 181.08 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…
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WORLD_2023_03_Wildlife trafficking gradually returns after pandemic lull_mostly by sea_Mongaby.pdf | 868.66 KB |