This archive of published media articles about wildlife crime in Namibia aims to:
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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All five rhino species face threats The Sumatran (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis) and Javan rhinos (Rhinoceros sondaicus), both native to Indonesia, are listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List. The greater one-horned rhino (Rhinoceros unicornis) in India and Nepal is classified as vulnerable. Meanwhile, the black rhino (Diceros bicornis) in Africa is considered critically endangered, and the white rhino (Ceratotherium simum) is near threatened.
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AFR_2025_09_Protecting rhinos more urgent that ever this World Rhino Day_Mongabay.pdf | 100.64 KB |
A cluster of mass vulture poisonings in May and June 2025 has drawn attention to an ongoing problem in the transfrontier conservation area that straddles South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. The field response to the poisonings involved teams of veterinarians, rapid response teams, and stepped-up monitoring of the area, saving the lives of more than 80 vultures. The series of incidents triggered meetings involving South Africa National Parks, conservation NGOs and other authorities to assess where systems were lacking and could be improved.
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SA_2025_09_Mass vulture poisonings expose need for cross_border action in Southern Africa_Mongabay.pdf | 706.68 KB |
More than 400 vultures died in a spate of poisoning events in and near South Africa's Kruger National Park in May and June this year. André Botha, co-chair of the Vulture Specialist Group at the IUCN, says more than 2,000 vultures have been poisoned in the wider Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Conservation Area (GLTFCA) since 2015, and other raptors and predators have also died. Observers have noted an increase in hunting and snaring of species such as impala for the bushmeat trade, with poachers frequently leaving poison-laced carcasses behind to deliberately kill carnivores or…
EAGLE Côte d'Ivoire - 2 traffickers arrested with 32kg ivory. The ivory, concealed in a rice sack, was trafficked from Liberia. The Burkina Faso National trafficker denounced the other for being a known big ivory trafficker.
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CI_2025_09_2 traffickers arrested with 32kg ivory_Roar Wildlife News.pdf | 43.58 KB |
African pangolins are heavily hunted to meet the international demand for scales as well as for their meat in the local bushmeat trade. But how much each contributes to the hunting of these beleaguered mammals in various parts of Nigeria, a trafficking hub, is unclear. For a recent study, researchers interviewed more than 800 hunters and meat vendors in southeast Nigeria, a poaching hotspot, and found that hunters almost always hunt pangolins opportunistically, mostly for their meat rather than their scales.
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NIG_2025_09_In southeast Nigeria_pangolins hunted for meat_not scales_study finds_Mongabay.pdf | 320.57 KB |
The illegal wildlife trade threatens many species worldwide but also jeopardizes local communities' well-being and livelihoods, breaks down law and order in society, compromises people’s safety and security, and promotes corruption, a new op-ed argues. Organized criminal networks typically depend on vulnerable, cash-poor people in local communities to capture and transport wildlife across borders, but even when they’re not caught, the damage to their families and communities can be great.
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SA_2025_09_Controlling wildlife crime saves more than species_commentary_Mongabay.pdf | 616.04 KB |
Rhino poaching persists despite a slight decrease worldwide over the last three years, driven by relentless demand for their horns in East Asia, according to a recent report by TRAFFIC and the IUCN. Three of the world's five rhino species are still in decline, the report finds, with white rhinos in Africa dwindling to an almost two-decade low. Greater one-horned rhinos in India and Nepal are recovering well, while Indonesia's Javan and Sumatran rhinos - both critically endangered species - continue to teeter on the brink of extinction.