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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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A joint operation by the Special Wildlife Crime Unit and the Uganda Police Force has led to the arrest of a suspected ivory trafficker and the recovery of 154 kilograms of raw elephant ivory in Northern Uganda. The suspect, Francis Opiro, was apprehended on February 22, 2026, in Nwoya District while in possession of ten pieces of raw elephant tusks. Authorities confirmed that he will be arraigned before the Standards, Utilities and Wildlife Court to face charges of unlawful possession of protected wildlife specimens, contrary to the Uganda Wildlife Act Cap 315.
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| UGAN_2026_02_Uganda_Ivory trafficker arrested with 154kg of elephant tusks_AllAfrica.pdf | 54.07 KB |
A Mozambican man, convicted for poaching, will spend the next 18 years in prison. Santos Baloyi, 31, was arrested after a rhino was killed at Kruger National Park in September. He was also convicted on charges of trespassing, contravention of the Immigration Act, possession of a dangerous weapon.
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| SA_2023_02_Mozambican gets 18 years in jails well as on arms ammo and trespassing charges_IOL.pdf | 176.82 KB |
Despite being 20 times smaller and having much lower rainfall, Richtersveld has more plant species than the country's famous Kruger national park. It is, says Van Wyk, "the most important succulent laboratory in the world". But it is this variety of rare succulents that draws the poachers. Many Richtersveld species are so specialised that they grow only in one valley or on one mountain slope. In extreme cases an entire species can be confined to an area smaller than a football pitch, so a poacher could render a species extinct in a morning.