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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 - 5 of 5
Monday, 24 February 2025
Machamire F 2025. Chinese nationals arrested over rhino horn smuggling at RG Mugabe airport.

Harare - Two Chinese nationals, Lin Wang and Fuxi Wang, have been arrested for allegedly attempting to smuggle rhino horns worth a combined US$480,000 out of Zimbabwe through Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare. The illicit wildlife contraband was concealed inside sculptures, including a plastic owl, and intercepted by authorities following a series of investigations and surveillance operations.

Wednesday, 19 June 2024
Sguazzin A 2024. SA sets target for plan to lift ban on rhino-horn trade.

South Africa, where 79% of the world's rhinos live, said it aims to come up with a plan by the end of 2030 to dismantle an almost half-century ban on trading the endangered animals' horns. The proposal, contained in a draft of the country's first rhino biodiversity-management plan released late Tuesday, is controversial because poaching of the animals for their horns has decimated their populations across Africa. The horns are ground into powder and sold in east Asia where they are falsely believed to cure cancer and other ailments.

Monday, 28 November 2022
Machamire F 2022. Zimbabwe rhino population up while rest of Africa sees decline.

Zimbabwe's rhino population remains among the bright sparks on the African continent after it increased by 14 percent from a total 887 in 2017 to now stand at 1,033. The statistics were compiled by Rhino Specialist Groups of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and trade monitoring organisation TRAFFIC, ahead of the 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties (CoP19) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wildlife Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Panama this month.

Friday, 30 September 2022
Davie M, Henry M 2022. The wildlife sanctuary bringing rhinos back from the brink.

Rhinos were poached to near extinction in Zimbabwe. Now a private wildlife sanctuary is reintroducing them to places.

Wednesday, 25 May 2022
Machamire F 2022. Villagers arrested for attempted sale of ivory tusks in northern Zimbabwe.

A spike in seizures of elephant ivory from people emboldened enough to be trying to sell it openly in markets, from their houses, and even at a fuel station, has raised concerns among conservationists about a return of poaching. Police reported the six villagers were arrested on May 3 and 4, 2022, while trying to sell elephant tusks in the mining town of Hwange, in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland North province. On May 1, 57-year-old Collin Tapfumaneyi Chizengeni was more audacious: arrested while trying to sell 21 pieces of ivory from his house in Gutu.

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