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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.

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Displaying results 1 - 5 of 5
Thursday, 27 July 2023
Smit E 2023. Special wildlife crime courts highly effective.

Assets and goods seized and forfeited to the state during the finalisation of wildlife crime cases at special courts last year were valued at more than N$4 million. The seized items included illegal wildlife products, firearms and vehicles used in wildlife crimes. According to the Wildlife Protection and Law Enforcement Report in Namibia, the judicial system faces a range of challenges in dealing with high rates of crime and ensuring justice is served; a central hurdle is a growing backlog of cases on the court rolls. "This has…

Thursday, 13 July 2023
Stoddard E 2023. Kruger lions being poisoned by poachers for body parts, says SANParks.

South African National Parks has confirmed that lions have been targeted in a poisoning campaign in the northern Kruger Park by poachers seeking the animals’ body parts, presumably for the muti trade. The numbers are not huge, but in the wake of the rhino poaching onslaught, the targeting of another charismatic species in the iconic park will set off alarm bells among conservationists.

Saturday, 1 July 2023
2023. Kenya vows to combat illegal trade in iconic species via enhanced partnership.

Kenya will enhance partnerships with neighboring countries and regional blocs in a bid to protect abundant natural resources like wildlife from the clutches of organized crime, an official has said.

Wednesday, 27 January 2021
2021. Nigeria Customs intercepts huge haul of pangolin scales, ivory.

Authorities put the value of the seizure at N952million and say the items were headed to Vietnam. Mohammed Abba-Kura, Customs Comptroller, said at a media briefing on Tuesday in Lagos that the items were contained in a one-unit 20-feet container with number CSLU 2362640 heading to Haiphong, Vietnam. He said the items, falsely declared as furniture, comprised 162 sacks of pangolin scales weighing 8,800kg and 57 sacks of mixed endangered species of various sizes such as ivory/animal horns, lion bones and others.

Tuesday, 26 January 2021
Smit E 2021. Inside the mind of a wildlife crime offender: National parks are the prime hunting grounds for convicted poachers serving time in Namibian prisons, a new study has found.

It reveals how some offenders identified the Zambezi Region, which lies within the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA), as the local hub for trading of wildlife products. Kongola, Rundu, and Windhoek were also implicated as local locations for transit or sale of wildlife products, while Bwabwata, Mudumu, Nkasa Rupara, and Etosha National Parks were identified as the sources for elephant, lion, and rhino products.

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