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The National Assembly yesterday approved an amendment to the Nature Conservation Ordinance to increase fines related to elephant and rhino poaching from the current N$200 000 to a maximum of N$25 million. The period of imprisonment for convicted rhino or elephant poachers would be increased to a maximum of 25 years, up from 20 years.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism yesterday tabled a bill for an amendment to the Nature Conservation Ordinance to increase fines related to rhino and elephant poaching from the current N$200 000 maximum penalty to a maximum penalty of N$25 million.

The Chinese national who smuggled 18 rhino horns through Hosea Kutako International Airport and was arrested in South Africa, had received the rhino horns in Windhoek. Ye Zhiwei, 28, who pleaded guilty to charges of importing the rhino horns without the necessary permits in the Kempton Park Regional Court in
South Africa, said in his plea explanation that he had received 15 black rhino horns and three white rhino horns at a hotel in Windhoek.

Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) has thrown its weight behind efforts to fight rhino poaching in the country, particularly inside the Etosha National Park.

Disturbing revelations pertaining to the plunder of our natural resources have come to the fore, not for the first time either, but it is the trend that is beginning to ruffle the sustainable feathers of our flora and fauna. Concerted efforts are being made in order to win the battle against the poaching of our endangered rhino and elephants as sophisticated poaching syndicates seem to have taken advantage of the loopholes and weaknesses in the anti-poaching strategies currently in place.

The highest office in the country has joined the outcry against the spate of poaching and plundering of wildlife resources currently experienced in the country. President Hage Geingob, during the opening of the 2017 legal year, called upon parliament to send him the necessary amendments to the relevant laws to increase penalties so that he can sign them into law for the courts to enforce them.

Xuecheng Hou, a wealthy Chinese businessman linked to wildlife contraband trafficking, has emerged as a major player in the illegal trade in rare African timber in sub-Saharan Africa. John Grobler investigates.

Foreigners who are found guilty of wildlife crimes should serve out their sentences, be deported and should not be allowed back in Namibia. This is the view of environment minister Pohamba Shifeta, who says the Nature Conservation Ordinance Act is outdated and far too lenient in its sentencing of poachers. According to Shifeta, the ministry is in the process of amending the Act and proposed fines for poaching will range from N$100 000 to N$25 million.

A young rhino cow that was shot multiple times by poachers at a farm near Gobabis in December, has died of her wounds.

Namibia has so far dehorned 451 black rhinos at a cost of over N$14,5 million in an effort to discourage poaching in the country. Government has been dehorning rhinos since 2014. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism makes use of experts contracted to dehorn black rhinos in the country's national game parks, including Etosha, Namib-Naukluft, Mamili, and the Waterberg Plateau Park.

Two men arrested by the Namibian Police Force (NamPol)'s Protected Resources Unit for the possession of rhino horns and abalone products at the beginning of this month, have been granted bail.

The prosecutor general has bank accounts and six cars belonging to a Chinese citizen and a Namibian man facing charges of possessing and trying to export the shellfish abalone from Namibia in her sights.

In 1963, the then South African administration proclaimed the entire Western Caprivi as a nature park, by far the earliest nature conservation area in northern Namibia.

The State yesterday painted a picture of the pecking order among the four Chinese men accused of trying to smuggle 14 rhino horns out of Namibia. Li Xiaoliang, Li Zhibing, Pu Xuexin and Wang Hui yesterday appeared in the Windhoek Regional Court in Katutura for the continuation of their trial. They are charged with trying to smuggle 14 rhino horns worth more than N$2.3 million and a leopard skin valued at N$50 000 out of Namibia. The items were found in two suitcases at Hosea Kutako International Airport on March 24 last year.

State prosecutor Simba Nduana yesterday told one of the Chinese men standing trial in Namibia’s largest rhino-horn-smuggling case that he and one of his co-accused had concocted a “cock and goose” story for the court that was filled with inconsistencies. Li Xiaoliang was cross-examined in the Windhoek Regional Court as the trial of Xiaoliang and his co-accused, Li Zinbing, Pu Xuexin and Wang Hui, continued.

A Chinese national and a Namibian appeared before the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday on charges of dealing in protected game products and possession of controlled wildlife products with a combined valued of N$320 000. The two men, Zhi Geng (37) and James Barron Wallace (47), were not asked to plead to the charges Geng was arrested in Windhoek on February 1 for dealing in 1.5kg rhino horn valued at N$232 000 and abalone valued at N$91 000. Wallace is charged only with the possession of abalone.

The discovery of close to 100 kilogrammes of dried abalone and more than a kilogramme of rhino horn pieces in Windhoek this week landed a Chinese citizen and a Namibian man in the dock in the Windhoek Magistrate's Court yesterday.