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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
Thursday, 6 March 2025
Welz A 2025. A craze for tiny plants is driving a poaching crisis in South Africa.

Tiny plants in plastic pots, each carefully labeled, cram a South African greenhouse. Each is the evidence of at least one crime. These are strange plants without typical stems or leaves. Some look like greenish thumb-tips, others like grapes or rounded stones. Some sprout small, bright flowers. Few are more than an inch tall. I've agreed not to disclose this location because the plants, confiscated from poachers and smugglers, are valuable and could be re-stolen by the same criminal networks that first dug them from their natural habitats to traffic overseas.

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.

Friday, 29 December 2023
Olugbode M 2023. Nigerian Government launches investigation into killing of elephants and migrating eagles.

The government is equally on a manhunt for the killers of two booted eagles that migrated all the way from Europe but met their deaths in both Kebbi and Sokoto States. Addressing a press conference on Friday in Abuja, the Minister of State for Environment, Dr.

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.

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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