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.
Explore your search results using the filter checkboxes, or amend your search or start a new search.
On Thursday morning, a notice of appeal was filed with the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism to revoke the Environmental Impact Certificates (ECC), according to which mining was allowed in the protected and conservanial areas southwest of Khorixas. This came after the High Court temporarily banned all mining operations in the area in an urgent procedure until the environmental officer Timoteus Mufeti made a decision on the mining applications of Timoteus Mashuna and Otilie Ndeshetelwa Ndimulunde.
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NAM_2024_10_Demonstration against mining activities_Allgemeine Zeitung.pdf | 238.01 KB |
The country has recorded a decrease in arrests related to the poaching of rhinos, elephants, and pangolins, but authorities say more work is needed to combat the ongoing threat from international poaching syndicates. Speaking at a handover of donated vehicles last week, the Minister of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta said combined arrests for rhino and elephant poaching dropped from 143 last year to 91 this year. Pangolin-related crimes also saw a decline, with 30 cases recorded this year compared to 60 last year, Shifeta added.
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NAM_2024_10_Wildlife poaching arrests decline_Namibia Economist.pdf | 1.17 MB |
Police in the Zambezi region on Saturday afternoon arrested a 45-year-old Zambian man over illegal possession of wildlife products. The suspect was charged over possession and dealing in controlled wildlife products without a permit and for being in Namibia without valid documents. According to the weekend crime report, the suspect was found with six elephant tusks cut into twelve pieces.
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NAM_2024_10_Five nabbed over illegal possession of wildlife products drugs_The Namibian.pdf | 62.86 KB |
A total of 46 rhinos, including 35 black and 11 white rhinos, have been killed in the Etosha National Park by poachers so far in 2024, minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta has said. He made the announcement in the capital last week during the donation of 22 vehicles and information technology (IT) equipment, valued at N$19.8 million to the ministry by the Integrated Wildlife Protection Project. The donation was co-financed by the German state-owned KfW Development Bank.
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NAM_2024_10_46 Ethosha rhinos poached in 2024_New Era Namibia.pdf | 189.9 KB |
A 45-year-old Zambian man was arrested in the Lubuta area of the Zambezi Region on Saturday for possession of six elephant tusks without a permit. According to the police, the man was arrested near the Lubuta-Sachona Gravel Road following an intelligence-led covert operation. The suspect was allegedly found with six elephant tusks, which had been cut into 12 pieces. The value of the tusks has not yet been determined. The suspect is expected to make his first court appearance today, at the Katima Mulilo Magistrates' Court.
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NAM_2024_10_Zambian man arrested in Zambezi for possession of elephant tusks_Informante.pdf | 46.18 KB |
September was a busy month for the SWT/KWS Anti-Poaching Teams. The teams covered 14,197 kilometres on patrol, making several significant arrests, and supported a number of orphan rescues, veterinary treatments, firefighting operations, and field emergencies. It is the height of the dry season, which brings a reliable uptick in illegal activities.
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KEN_2024_10_Anti_Poaching Report_September 2024_Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.pdf | 466.99 KB |
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).
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NAM_2024_10_Shifeta pushes ivory stockpile sale_New Era Namibia.pdf | 179.66 KB |
Nahezu 80 Namibier erschienen diesen Monat wegen Wilderei vor Gericht. In den ersten drei Februarwochen wurden neun neue Fälle von Wildtierkriminalität registriert und Verdächtige festgenommen. In diesem Zeitraum fanden außerdem insgesamt 33 Gerichtsverhandlungen zu Fällen von Wildtierkriminalität statt, an denen 79 Namibier und sieben Ausländer beteiligt waren. Dies geht aus statistischen Berichten über Wilderei hervor, die von der Abteilung für Schutzressourcen innerhalb der Sicherheitsabteilung und der Geheimdienst- und Ermittlungseinheit des Umweltministeriums…
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NAM_2022_02_Volle Gerichte auf Grund von Wilderei_Allgemeine Zeitung.pdf | 478.67 KB |
NAM_2022_02_Full courts due to poaching_Allgemeine Zeitung_Eng.pdf | 479.32 KB |
A man has been arrested for unlawful possession of ivory after he was found with two elephant tusks. Police confirmed the arrest which occurred in Victoria Falls on February 21.
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ZIM_2022_02_Man arrested after being found with elephant tusks_The Chronicle.pdf | 486.59 KB |
Officers of Mozambique's National Criminal Investigation Service (Sernic) have seized eleven elephant tusks in a house in the western city of Tete, according to a report in Sunday's on-line issue of the independent daily "O Pais".
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MOZ_2022_02_ Eleven Elephant Tusks Seized in Tete_allAfrica_com.pdf | 267.8 KB |
United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator Malawi Rudolf Schwenk says the increased trends in poaching of animals such as elephants and pangolins in Malawi is very worrying and if left unaddressed, wildlife trafficking will continue to be a threat to achievement of sustainable development in the country.
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MAL_2022_02_UN says wildlife crime in Malawi needs to be fully addressed_malawi24.pdf | 395.75 KB |
A single transnational criminal network may be poaching elephants across southern and eastern Africa, a new study has claimed. The criminals may be trying to shift base to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from east Africa, warned the report published February 14, 2022, in the journal Nature Human Behaviour. Such criminal networks may be seeking to use porous borders of the DRC as well as the weak rule of law there to their advantage, the study said.
The charge sheet says the tusks weighed three kilograms, worth Sh300,000.
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KEN_2022_02_Man in court for trying to sell Sh300 000 tusks to cops_The Star.pdf | 779.39 KB |
DNA testing on seized ivory shipments that reveals family ties among African elephants killed for their tusks is helping to identify poaching areas and trafficking networks at the centre of an illegal trade that continues to devastate the population of earth's largest land animal.
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SA_2022_02_Elephant tusk DNA sleuthing reveals ivory trafficking networks_TimesLive.pdf | 256.82 KB |
Zimbabwe has partnered four other states in the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) in an agreement which will see them joining forces to combat wildlife crime. The four states that will work with Zimbabwe to defend their borders against wildlife threats are Angola, Botswana, Namibia and Zambia.
The Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), in collaboration with the Wildlife Justice Commission, has intercepted pangolin scales and elephant tusks worth N3.1billion being transported through Nigeria to Asia. The Controller General of Customs, Hameed Ali, who disclosed this yesterday while displaying the seized items to journalists at the Customs Training College, Ikeja, Lagos, said 15 sacks of pangolin scales (839.4kg) and four sacks of elephant tusks (145kg) were intercepted in a Toyota Sienna bus with registration number KRD 541 HH at Lekki on February 2, 2022.
There has been a great improvement in the handling of wildlife crimes in the country's courts of law following an accelerated mentorship drive for prosecutors and magistrates on the subject, a wildlife rights proponent has said.
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ZIM_2022_02_Zimbabwe records progress against wildlife crimes_The Herald.pdf | 595.7 KB |