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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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Displaying results 1 - 7 of 7
Tuesday, 18 November 2025
Ebersole R 2025. The Parrot Cartel - A yearlong investigation into the African-grey trade reveals a web of poachers, egg smugglers, wealthy businessmen - and multitudes who want a talking bird.

The bird man is at his desk, vaping and working the phone. Fly traps coated with insects dangle from the ceiling. Tigers and lions pace fenced enclosures in the backyard. Tilting in his swivel chair - legs crossed, plaid short-sleeve shirt unbuttoned to the chest, reading glasses propped on his balding head - Gideon Fourie takes a long drag on his blue vape and begins to tell me how he became one of South Africa's leading parrot traders. "The African grey is the best talking and friendly [sic] bird in the world," Fourie says, rolling the R's in his heavily Afrikaans-­inflected…

Friday, 2 December 2022
van Zyl C 2022. Four women in custody for possession of lion cubs they were selling.

Police said four women are in custody for the possession of lion cubs they were selling in Boksburg North.

Friday, 11 February 2022
van Zyl C 2022. Man convicted for illegal possession of pangolin in Northern Cape.

A 25-year-old man was convicted and sentenced by Kuruman Regional Court after trying to sell a pangolin for R200 000.

Saturday, 16 October 2021
van Zyl C 2021. Poacher sentenced to 19 years in prison after a white rhinoceros was killed.

The 38-year-old poacher was sentenced to 19 years behind bars after a white rhinoceros was killed in Lower Sabie in 2014.

Sunday, 1 August 2021
van Zyl C 2021. 249 rhino poached in SA since the start of 2021 and it is increasing.

At least 249 rhinos were killed in the first six months of this year in South Africa. The bulk of the killings happened at the Kruger National Park, where 132 rhinos were killed.

Sunday, 20 December 2020
Ebersole R 2020. The black-market trade in wildlife has moved online, and the deluge is 'dizzying'.

When a squad of federal and state law enforcement agents with guns and bulletproof vests entered a single-story brick home in Buffalo, New York, on July 5, 2018 they were searching for business records of a suspected criminal enterprise. Experts trained to handle dangerous exotic cats congregated in a sunroom pungent with the odor of cat urine.

Thursday, 3 December 2020
Ro C 2020. Convicted poachers in South Africa explain why heavy policing is ineffective.

It's clear why the illegal wildlife trade exists. Where there's consumer demand for products from endangered species, there are bound to be networks seeking to profit from that demand. But what about the motivations of individual offenders? TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade NGO, decided to simply ask them. The researchers interviewed 73 people in South African correctional centers, who had been convicted of crimes related to rhinos, abalone, or cycads (ancient palm-like plants that have been called "the world's most endangered plants").

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