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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South Africans have grown used to grim headlines about rhino poaching. Yet the latest numbers suggest the fight may finally be turning a corner, even as fresh violence exposes how dangerous and complex this war remains. Government figures released earlier this year showed a 16% drop in rhino killings during 2025. A total of 352 rhinos were poached, down from 420 in 2024. That decline gave hope because conservation teams have spent years trying to outpace syndicates that adapt faster than fences or patrols.
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| SA_2026_05_Is SA winning the war against rhino poaching_Latest incidents_SA People.pdf | 214.09 KB |
Director of Intelligence at the Wildlife Justice Commission Sarah Stoner is calling for wildlife crime to be recognised as transnational crime and not simply as a conservation issue. According to Stoner, "Our analysis found that rhino horn is most often smuggled with no concealment at all so around 1/3 of horns that were seized in the last 10 years indicate there was no attempt to hide the contraband in the shipment.
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| SA_2022_09_Calls for wildlife crime to be recognised as transnational crime_SABC News.pdf | 771.92 KB |
Namibia is in the process of establishing a special operations unit that will include the use of horses to help curb poaching, an ofcial said on Wednesday. According to Manie le Roux, who coordinates the K9 unit at the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism, the mounted unit, which will have 12 horses and 14 members, will work together with the canine unit.
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| NAM_2020-11_Namibia mounted patrol_Journal of African Elephants.pdf | 327.76 KB |