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More than 1,000 starving elephants may have to be culled. Parliamentarians demand answers by tomorrow (Friday). In a scathing parliamentary session on Tuesday, 10 June members of the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment accused North West officials of gross mismanagement and evasion of responsibility for the ongoing elephant crisis in the Madikwe Game Reserve. The crisis, years in the making, has led to mass starvation and death among elephants, extensive environmental degradation and a controversial proposal to cull as many as 1,200 of them.

Emaciated lions, open wounds, pens covered in faeces, no shelter in blazing sun, cubs on rubbish dumps, lacerated paws  - the images displayed on the screen were shocking. But Douglas Wolhuter of the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) was on a mission to make parliamentarians understand the cruelty involved in captive breeding. It was both an impassioned plea to shut down lion breeding facilities and harsh criticism of the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) for failing to implement its own recommendations.

Katima Mulilo: A renewed crackdown on poaching in the Zambezi region is yielding results. Wildlife crime in the area is now under control, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) has confirmed. The assurance follows the recent arrest of a suspect at the Katima Mulilo checkpoint, who was found in possession of lion bones and fat. MET's chief control warden for the region Morgan Saisai said the successful operation reflects the strength of ongoing anti-poaching measures, strategic partnerships and active community involvement.

Yet another mass poisoning of vultures has occurred in Mpumalanga. More than 100 critically endangered raptors have been found dead, their carcasses strewn around a poisoned warthog in Lionspruit Game Reserve near Kruger Park. The poisoning is the latest in a string of deliberate killings and has triggered alarm among conservationists, who now believe these attacks are part of a coordinated effort by criminal poaching syndicates to wipe out vultures - nature's watchmen - before launching a wave of poaching activity.

An elephant carcass, laced with poison and surrounded by more than 100 dead vultures, marked one of the most devastating wildlife poisoning events yet seen in the Kruger National Park. Remote sensing triggered a scramble to save birds that were still alive. In a coordinated emergency operation spanning helicopters, ambulances and nearly 24 hours of intensive care, 84 poisoned vultures were pulled back from the brink.

The sale of lion bones is heading back to court with a 235-page application by lion breeders demanding that the Environment Department set a CITES export quota for 2025. The subtext is a clash between free trade and animal wellbeing. In 2019, a Gauteng Division of the High Court judge found an application by breeders to renew the lion bone export quota to be "unlawful and constitutionally invalid". He said it failed to consider the welfare of captive lions raised and killed for their bones. Lion breeders have been simmering with anger ever since.

The blurb for an editorial in The Namibian newspaper on 9 November read: "From Kavango to Kunene, down south across the breadth and width of Namibia, the scramble for the country’s mineral, oil and energy sources is in overdrive." The article ended: "Government officials have turned Namibia into an unsustainable El Dorado with a vicious cycle of short-term searches for riches dishing out mining exploration licences to a select few." As you read this, graders, excavators and tipper trucks are hacking a road through three conservancies famous for their conservation of endangered,…

Three conservancies in Namibia and their joint venture partner are trying to fight off a mine thatthreatens wildlife and community welfare because it will ruin tourism.

Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta has revealed plans to submit a Cabinet proposal to allow Namibia to sell or dispose of its tonnes of ivory and rhino horn stockpiles. In May, five nations that make up the Kavango-Zambezi (KAZA) trans-frontier conservation area: Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana, and Angola jointly called for the lifting of a ban on ivory sales imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

An environment and tourism official was arrested with three other men for illegally hunting a protected blue wildebeest in the Daan Viljoen game park, west of Windhoek. They were arrested on Tuesday at the roadblock, west of Windhoek, leading to the game park. The suspects, including the official in uniform, were nabbed with a whole carcass of the wildebeest in the boot of their sedan. Blue wildebeest are classified as protected and endangered species in Namibia. The official is said to be stationed at the park as an assistant game ranger for the environment ministry.

The environment and tourism ministry has said rhino poaching remains a serious concern with 87 rhinos poached in 2022, consisting of 61 black rhinos and 26 white rhinos. The ministry’s spokesperson, Romeo Muyunda, yesterday said the 2022 poaching cases include 15 rhinos poached on rhino custodianship farms, another 25 on white rhino private farms and a majority of 46 were killed in the Etosha National Park.

Kruger National Park, the world's greatest refuge for rhinos, is losing them to poaching faster than they're being born. The park's last rhino may already be alive. It's time to declare an emergency.

The environment and tourism ministry says even though it continues to record successes in its fight against wildlife crime, poaching of highly valued species remains a concern. Ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda over the weekend said 63 rhinos have been poached in the country this year alone. This includes 41 black rhinos and 22 white rhinos. This year’s poaching cases include 15 rhinos poached on custodianship farms, another 22 on private farms and 26 in the Etosha National Park.

Rhino poachers entering Kruger National Park are increasingly being run down by packs of unleashed hunting hounds in full cry, followed by a chopper tracking their hi-tech GPS collars. As the baying pack approaches, the poacher has no idea the dogs are trained to not attack. They won't bite him (there are legal implications), but if he tries to harm the dogs, rangers will fire from the chopper. The poachers know this and no dog has yet
been lost to a poacher’s bullet.

Uitkoms - As the population of Farm Uitkoms grows, crimes and social ills such as poaching, stock theft and drug and alcohol abuse are skyrocketing. Farm Uitkoms, housing mainly marginalised Namibians some 160km north-east of Okahandja, is seen as the epitome of self-sustainability in terms of government resettlement efforts. In 2008, retired veteran politician Dr Libertina Amathila, who at the time held the portfolio of Deputy Prime Minister, vigorously spearheaded a campaign that saw the marginalised San community resettled at this farm.

Environment minister Pohamba Shifeta has redeployed retired police commander Ndahangwapo Kashihakumwa to lead anti-poaching efforts in the Etosha National Park. The national park has been hard-hit by poachers in recent weeks, including the discovery of 11 rhino carcasses.

Namibia will soon make use of DNA analysis in forensic investigations into animal abuse and crimes such as illegal smuggling, poaching and the illegal trade in protected species. Using DNA analysis will make it possible to identify the species and geographical origin, such as the population of a forensic sample, and to also individualise the sample with high levels of probability. Police chief Sebastian Ndeitunga this week announced that the capacitation of the new National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia is at an advanced stage.

The Kruger National Park has a major rhino-poaching crisis, but that's just one of many mounting problems - and it's extremely worrying.

Namibia has lost nine rhinos to poaching in various national parks this year, according to the environment ministry. The statistics show three black, and six white rhinos were poached this year alone. The three black rhinos were killed in the Etosha National Park, while six rhinos were poached for their horns at private-owned white rhino reserves. Environment spokesperson Romeo Muyunda also issued national elephant poaching statistics per year from 2014 to 2021.

Etosha - Although poaching of endangered species such as rhino and elephant have been reported to be minimal in the Etosha National Park, environment minister Pohamba Shifeta has called on law enforcement officials to do ballistic testing among communities adjacent to the park. Shifeta made the call Wednesday when he was briefed on the security situation cluster on antipoaching operation 'Yes Ongava' phase 18 in the Etosha National Park.

Fishermen on a fishing expedition stumbled upon a bag containing four elephant tusks hidden in shallow waters between Ondangwa and Ongwediva over the long Africa Day weekend. A group of village boys between Opoto and Shipepe locations near Ongwediva were fishing in the water channel near the road when they made the elephant tusks discovery.

The ministry of environment has started an investigation after an elephant was found dead on a farm in the Kavango East region. According to ministry spokesperson Romeo Muyunda, the elephant was found dead in a crop field with its tusks intact at farm Nanava within the Linena constituency over the weekend. The elephant was reportedly found with a bullet wound above the right eye. The farm is approximately 90km southeast of Rundu. He said a follow up was done on Saturday by the ministry staff, the protected resources unit and the police special field force.

Wild animals are back. Kangaroos bounding through the streets of Melbourne, elephant herds passing through Indian villages, jackals in Johannesburg, leopards in Mumbai, wild boar in Bergamo and Verreaux eagles catching thermals above a silent Cape Town. And of course, inevitable cartoons of humans in surgical masks staring forlornly at animals playing on the sidewalk. Is lockdown good news for creatures - or for poachers?

We kill many kinds of creatures and eat them. In South Africa each year around a billion are produced and killed for food. We also shoot them and call it sport. From the point of view of the creatures involved, this is an extreme violation of their most fundamental interests - to continue living, to be free from arbitrary suffering and to have agency to pursue normal behaviours. However, like lions, leopards or hyenas, we're carnivores and that will not change anytime soon. What has increasingly become a major global issue, however, is the lives they lead up to the point of death…

A new investigative report has laid bare the scale and complexity of wildlife trafficking across southern Africa, exposing a tangled web of corruption, organised crime and systemic failures that are eroding conservation efforts and fuelling illicit markets. Disruption and Disarray: An analysis of pangolin scale and ivory trafficking, 2015-2024 by the Wildlife Justice Commission is one of the most comprehensive examinations to date of how legal loopholes, political interference and institutional weakness have allowed the illegal trade in endangered species to flourish.

This highly lucrative illicit business is managed by organised criminal groups through a variety of payment mechanisms. These mechanisms, including cash transactions and bulk cash smuggling, trade-based money-laundering, international bank transfers through legal businesses and nominee bank account holders, are key to advancing the objectives of criminal organisations.