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Environment and tourism minister Pohamba Shifeta has come out strongly against CITES' decision to ban ivory from being sold on international markets. In an interview with New Era on the sidelines of the just-ended KAZA summit in Livingstone, he said if the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) refuses member states to sell off ivory stockpiles, they will withdraw their membership. "If CITES refuses, we have some alternatives and plans. We can go for arbitration.

In early May, the environment ministry's forestry directorate raided farms in the Kunene Region where protected mopane trees are being harvested and exported for charcoal and firewood. Trucks carrying loads of wood and charcoal - without permits to do so - have already been seized, the directorate confirmed. An outraged charcoal producer in the Outjo district, who preferred to remain anonymous, claimed a forestry official threatened him and demanded a bribe from him to not stop his charcoal business.

The State yesterday painted a picture of the pecking order among the four Chinese men accused of trying to smuggle 14 rhino horns out of Namibia. Li Xiaoliang, Li Zhibing, Pu Xuexin and Wang Hui yesterday appeared in the Windhoek Regional Court in Katutura for the continuation of their trial. They are charged with trying to smuggle 14 rhino horns worth more than N$2.3 million and a leopard skin valued at N$50 000 out of Namibia. The items were found in two suitcases at Hosea Kutako International Airport on March 24 last year.

State prosecutor Simba Nduana yesterday told one of the Chinese men standing trial in Namibia’s largest rhino-horn-smuggling case that he and one of his co-accused had concocted a “cock and goose” story for the court that was filled with inconsistencies. Li Xiaoliang was cross-examined in the Windhoek Regional Court as the trial of Xiaoliang and his co-accused, Li Zinbing, Pu Xuexin and Wang Hui, continued.