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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South Africa and Nambia's biodiversity has given rise to a wave of illegal activities, orchestrated by organized crime groups. These groups have sprung up as a result of the demand for unique plants known as succulents. South Africa's biodiversity is being threatened by organized crime groups involved in illegal poaching of rare succulent plants. Succulents are found in the Succulent Karoo desert in South Africa and Namibia, known for their ability to retain water in harsh conditions.
South Africa has faced a surge in poaching of rare succulents by criminal syndicates since 2019. A recent spike in prices paid for a different kind of plant, a drylands-adapted lily, the miracle clivia (Clivia mirabilis), has drawn the attention of plant-trafficking syndicates to the lone reserve where it grows. Large numbers of clivias have been seized by law enforcement, raising fears that this rare plant is quickly being wiped out from the limited range where it’s known to occur.
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SA_2024_12_Poachers target South Africas miracle plant with near impunity_Mongabay.pdf | 616.41 KB |
Kanyaruchinya, Democratic Republic of Congo - Amid a circle of spectators, a troupe of performers takes center stage. Songs resound, accompanied by the beat of drums and lively dances. A large banner carries a powerful message: "The future of our environment depends on our behavior today." The drumming soon gives way to a play performed in Swahili. We're in Kanyaruchinya, in the Nyiragongo territory of North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Some 200,000 people have sought refuge in the southern part of the province, seeing a conflict that has been raging since…
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DRC_2024_12_DRCs reliance on charcoal threatens forests and fuels armed conflict_Mongabay.pdf | 472.3 KB |
The Special Wildlife Office of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, has intercepted a 40-foot container of illegal wildlife products in Vietnam. Three suspects were also arrested in connection with the crime, barely six weeks after a similar seizure by Vietnam authorities. The Nigeria Customs Service, in a statement made available to newsmen, and signed by Asst. Comptroller Abimbola Isafiade, said the operation was conducted by the combined efforts of the officers of the Federal Operations Unit, FOU, Zone C, in a joint enforcement operation with the Wildlife Justice Commission, WJC…
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NIG_2024_05_Customs intercepts 40_ft container of illegal wildlife products_Daily Post.pdf | 439.1 KB |
The International Programs Office delivered two countering illegal logging skills-building workshops to the Zambia Illegal Logging Law Enforcement Network. The workshops were aligned with forthcoming revisions to the Zambia Forestry Act and were designed to help Zambian law enforcement agencies better engage with communities and with each other to counter illegal logging.
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ZAM_2024_Strengthening capacity of Zambia Illegal Logging Law Enforcement Network_USDA.pdf | 662.39 KB |
Trotz Bemühungen um Eindämmung des Handels mit bedrohten Tierarten wie Elefanten geht der illegale Handel mit Wildtieren weltweit unvermindert weiter. Dies geht aus dem einem Bericht des Büros der Vereinten Nationen für Drogen- und Verbrechensbekämpfung (UNODC) hervor, der eine Bestandsaufnahme der weltweiten Anti-Wilderei- Maßnahmen enthält.
Despite progress to curtail the trafficking of iconic species such as elephants, illegal wildlife trafficking continues unabated on a global scale. This is according to the 2024 World Wildlife Crime Report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which takes stock of efforts to counter poaching worldwide. The report highlights that wildlife trafficking has not seen a significant enough decrease over the past two decades, prompting a call for enhanced enforcement of existing laws, including measures to combat corruption.
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NAM_2024_05_Illegal wildlife trade remains immense_UN_Namibian Sun.pdf | 66.33 KB |
The Nigeria Customs Service Special Wildlife Office, over the weekend, announced the arrest of a Shipper and supplier responsible for the illegal exportation of a 40ft container of illegal Wildlife to Vietnam. It was gathered that the illegal wildlife products were intercepted and reported in Vietnam in April 2024 while the arrest of the suspects was made by the Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC) and the enforcement officers of the Federal Operations Unit (FOU), Zone C, Owerri, Imo state.
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NIG_2024_05_Customs arrests shipper_supplier over illegal export of wildlife_Leadership.pdf | 492.35 KB |
Namibia's precious wildlife is under threat from criminals, as illegal wildlife trade has become the world's fourth-largest form of transnational crime. This was said by Ana Beatriz Martins, the European Union's ambassador to Namibia, at a press debriefing for 'Operation Saving Wildlife through Multilateral Cooperation in Africa' (Sama) in Windhoek yesterday. She said dozens of wildlife species have been pushed ever closer to extinction by habitat loss and illegal trade.
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NAM_2024_05_Namibian precious wildlife is under threat from criminals_The Namibian.pdf | 550.94 KB |
Large-scale commercial operators are evading Liberian forestry regulations by illegally processing wood destined for export on-site in forests. Timber milled in forests with chainsaws is legally restricted to the production of boards by artisanal loggers for sale on the domestic market, but reporting by Liberian newspaper. The Daylight and research by U.S.-based NGO Forest Trends has found large-scale operators producing thicker blocks of high-value wood for export.
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LIB_2024_04_New illegal logging threatens Liberias forests amid vague ban_Conservation News.pdf | 3.23 MB |