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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.

Explore your search results using the filter checkboxes, or amend your search or start a new search.

Displaying results 1 - 7 of 7
Tuesday, 3 June 2025
2025. Fauna / Foreign fishing vessels plunder Namibia's horse mackerel.

It's past midnight and the officer manning Namibia's fisheries monitoring centre in Walvis Bay notices that a vessel near the Namibia-Angola border has stopped transmitting its location. At the same time, a Namibian fishing vessel's radar detects a foreign vessel notorious for illegal fishing, entering Namibia's waters. Both the officer and the vessel alert the Namibian navy and the fisheries department in Walvis Bay. Calls to the vessel's flag state remain unanswered, and without a law enforcement vessel located near the Namibia-Angola maritime border, the foreign vessel escapes…

Tuesday, 14 January 2025
Okumu W 2025. Fauna / Elite syndicate threatens Tanzania's Masai giraffe.

Masai giraffe calves and other juvenile African wildlife are being exported from Tanzania to the Sharjah Safari in Al Dhaid in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the pleasure of Dubai royalty and tourists. Human Rights Watch reports that the shooting and capture of animals, including the endangered Masai giraffe, and their transfer to Dubai are part of a long-running syndicate between successive Tanzanian governments and the Otterlo (sometimes Ortello) Business Corporation (OBC). This syndicate has been active since Ali Hassan Mwinyi’s presidency in the 1980s and 1990s.

Tuesday, 14 January 2025
2025. Elite syndicate threatens Tanzania's Masai giraffe.

Masai giraffe calves and other juvenile African wildlife are being exported from Tanzania to the Sharjah Safari in Al Dhaid in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for the pleasure of Dubai royalty and tourists. Human Rights Watch reports that the shooting and capture of animals, including the endangered Masai giraffe, and their transfer to Dubai are part of a long-running syndicate between successive Tanzanian governments and the Otterlo (sometimes Ortello) Business Corporation (OBC). This syndicate has been active since Ali Hassan Mwinyi's presidency in the 1980s and 1990s.

Monday, 13 January 2025
2025. Cameroon's green militarisation strategy safeguards African savanna elephants.

Poaching threatens the survival of savanna elephants in Central Africa. Over the last two decades, the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants programme has recorded 3 004 illegal elephant kills in this region. In April 2023, several elephants were killed in the Beinamar region of Chad, close to the Cameroon border, sparking concerns about a potential resurgence of poaching in this region. The Bouba Ndjida National Park, located in the North Region of Cameroon, shares a border with the Sena Oura Biosphere Reserve in Chad.

Monday, 13 January 2025
2025. Fauna / Cameroon's green militarisation strategy safeguards African savanna elephants.

Poaching threatens the survival of savanna elephants in Central Africa. Over the last two decades, the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants programme has recorded 3 004 illegal elephant kills in this region. In April 2023, several elephants were killed in the Beinamar region of Chad, close to the Cameroon border, sparking concerns about a potential resurgence of poaching in this region. The Bouba Ndjida National Park, located in the North Region of Cameroon, shares a border with the Sena Oura Biosphere Reserve in Chad.

Wednesday, 17 July 2024
Mokwena T 2024. 2 men sentenced to 15 years each for rhino poaching in SA.

Two men who were arrested with 27 rhino horns at the OR Tambo six years ago have been handed down a hefty sentence. The men were on their way to Vietnam to sell the poached rhino horns with an estimated value of R2.9 million. Some South Africans were dissatisfied that the men received 15 years for poaching and believed they deserved to be locked up for longer.

Sunday, 30 June 2024
Chirwa Z 2024. Mzansi reacts: Five men caught poaching R2.7 million endangered plant.

The netizens were reacting to the arrest of five men caught harvesting the endangered 424 Clavias marebelius plants in Nieuwoudtville, Northern Cape. The SAPS reportedly pounced on the unsuspecting culprits on 27 June 2024 after receiving information about the alleged plant poaching. The men, aged between 21 and 30, had allegedly harvested about R2.7 million worth of the protected plant.

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