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Nachdem eine Anti-Wilderer-Einheit zwei Wilddiebe gefasst hatte, stellt sich heraus, dass sich diese scheinbaren Gewohnheitsverbrecher für zahlreiche Wilderei-Fälle oder sogar wegen versuchten Mordes im Gericht verantworten müssen. Staatsankläger scheinen die schwerwiegenden Vorwürfe kaum zu beachten, sodass die Angeklagten oft ungeschoren davonkommen.

Traditional leaders in Kariba district have condemned wildlife poaching in the area, adding that the crime was detrimental to the development of tourism in the district. Kariba's tourism is anchored on wildlife, hence the need for conservation, but despite a significant drop in elephant poaching, the practice was rampant among other smaller animals.

Vietnamese court sentences 36-year-old man to 12 years in prison for drug trafficking rhino horns in Angola.

The two suspects were caught in the early hours of Friday morning with five goats in their possession which had been poached. The men also poached two kudus, two waterbucks and a gemsbok worth N$35 000 in the Khomas Region.

The Namibian police in the Otjozondjupa Region have arrested two suspected illegal hunters, thanks to a rental vehicle that exposed their whereabouts. The two suspects, aged 23 and 46, were found in possession of an unlicensed firearm as well as carcasses of two kudu bulls, two waterbucks, and an oryx, with an estimated total value of N$35,000. According to the police, the illegal hunting was uncovered accidentally through a rental vehicle they were travelling in.

A former field ranger, tasked with protecting wildlife, has been sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment for killing a rhino in the Nwanetsi section of the Kruger National Park in 2020. Eckson Musa Matumbu was sentenced at the Skukuza Regional Court on Friday. According to the South African National Parks (SANParks), Matumbu was arrested in February 2020 for killing a rhino with an official firearm issued to him and using non-issued ammunition. He was initially granted bail, which was later cancelled; the case was remanded to October 2023 for conviction and…

A 52-year-old man has been arrested after he was found with 446 units of dried abalone in Brackenfell.

Snaring has surged 200% in the Kruger National Park, also causing lion extinctions elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa.

A 42-year-old man has been sentenced to a decade behind bars at the Kuruman Regional Court after being nabbed with 2 850 endangered and protected plants worth more than R9 million. 

In recent years, succulent collecting has become a treasured pastime. These low-maintenance plants bring a lot of joy and camaraderie to those who collect, propagate, and share their passion. However, there’s a dark side to this seemingly harmless hobby. Illegal succulent poaching has become pervasive with the rise in succulent popularity. In this article, we’ll talk about the dark side of plant collecting, how plant poaching is changing legal and ecological landscapes, and how to be a conscientious and ethical collector.

Gqeberha police arrested a 28-year-old man on Wednesday after allegedly discovering perlemoen with an estimated street value of R3m in the bakkie he was driving.

Two men were on Tuesday arrested while trafficking 36 pieces of elephant tusks weighing 77 kilogrammes valued at Sh12 million in Maralal, Samburu county.

Alert farmworkers at Farm Eden, one of the most remote but iconic farms in the Otjozondjupa Region, prevented rhino poaching in the area, subsequently leading to the arrest of three suspected poachers.

Caught with a mother pangolin and its child in his home village near Nata on 19 November 2022, 33-year-old Othusitse Baile will forgo his freedom for the next four years.

The Tanzanian government has added a charge of money laundering to an economic sabotage case involving three defendants accused of smuggling 164 snakes, lizards, and chameleons without a permit. The accused, Eric Ayo, Ally Ringo, and Aziz Ndago, allegedly transported these wildlife assets valued at Sh20 million, violating local law. Now, instead of the previous two charges, the defendants will face three, with the third one, money laundering, solely targeting Ayo. He is supposed to have committed this crime on January 26, 2021, at the CRBD Bank in Msamvu, Morogoro.

Durban - South African conservation NGO, the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT), has introduced a novel project that seeks to test the use of restorative justice approaches to wildlife crimes - a first for the country. In South Africa, it is an offence to undertake any prohibited or unauthorised activity in respect of any legally protected species.

Joseph Nyalungu, popularly known as Big Joe, is accused of involvement in rhino poaching in Mpumalanga and Limpopo. The charges against him include possession of rhino horns, poaching, and money laundering.

Tawanda Kakora of Nyamaropa Village in Mt Darwin will spend the next nine years in jail afer he was arrested while trying to sell a live pangolin. Kakora (34) of Nyamaradzo Village under Chief Nembire was sentenced to a mandatory nine-year jail term afer being convicted on charges of possession or selling a live pangolin. In passing sentence, Bindura magistrate Mrs Nomgugu Sibanda said there were no special circumstances warranting the court to be lenient. The prosecutor, Mr Carson Kundiona proved that on September 30, detectives from…

Another case of dealing in controlled wildlife products has been reported in Kavango West, involving a 29-year-old man who was found with two pangolin skins on Tuesday. This comes after two men, aged 36 and 44, were arrested for being in possession of a live pangolin in Kakoro village recently. NamPol spokesperson Inspector Raimbert Muronga said that the 29-year-old suspect was arrested around 13:00 in Nkurenkuru town.

Am Dienstag wurde ein 29-Jähriger in Nkurenkuru in der Kavango West-Region verhaftet, nachdem dieser mit zwei Schuppentierpanzern im Wert von 100 000 N$ in seinem Besitz vorgefunden wurde. Laut der namibischen Polizei hatte der Verdächtige keine Genehmigung für den Handel mit solchen Produkten, woraufhin die Panzer beschlagnahmt wurden.

Nigerian environmental activists have hailed the federal government's decision to publicly destroy a sizable amount of wildlife products that were seized, such as crocodile skins, pangolin scales, leopard skins, and python skins, as a clear indication of the end of an era marked by various forms of impunity against the safekeeping of wildlife.

Protea poaching on the slopes of Table Mountain remains a concern and local authorities are calling on the public to report perpetrators. There has been a slight increase in the number of protea poaching incidents in the Vredehoek area this year compared to previous years. The Table Mountain National Park has partnered with the Devil's Peak Vredehoek Watch Group, police and various safety structures to conduct patrols to curb flora poaching and other illegal activities.

These crimes, ranging from illegal wildlife trade to unregulated fishing and the trafficking of rare timber and precious stones, are estimated to be worth between $110 billion and $281 billion annually, positioning them among the most profitable illicit economies worldwide. The report, titled Hidden in Plain Site, is written by Kristina Amerhauser and Robin Cartwright and looks at illicit financial flows (IFFs) related to three specific illicit environmental flows: timber trafficking from Myanmar to China; gemstone trafficking from Mozambique to Thailand; and abalone…

The west coastal waters of South Africa are under siege, not from the waves of the Atlantic, but from an insidious tide of environmental crime that is sweeping away one of its most precious marine resources. The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime has sounded the alarm on the rampant illicit trade of South African abalone, with the country's Haliotis midae species, locally known as perlemoen (abalone), facing potential extinction due to soaring demand from East Asia. So rampant is this environmental crime that the Global…

Three poachers were caught red-handed with a hunting rifle fitted with a silencer and ammunition in the Kruger National Park (KNP). According to KNP spokesperson Isaac Phaahla, the arrests were made in the Stolznek Section on Tuesday. In the first six months of 2023 a total of 231 rhinos were killed in South Africa at an average of just under 1.3 rhinos per day.

Two men, aged 36 and 44, were arrested after being found in possession of a live pangolin in Kakoro village, Kavango West. NamPol Head of Media, Chief Inspector Elifas Kuwinga, reported that the arrests occurred on Sunday around 16:00. Both suspects are Namibian nationals. "They were apprehended after being discovered in possession of a live pangolin valued at N$50 000 during a police operation," he said. Kuwinga said that the duo is facing charges related to dealing with and possessing controlled wildlife products.

Cameroon ranked seventh out of 29 African nations in terms of being a source or transit point for illegal wildlife trafficking (IWT) during the decade spanning from 2009 to 2019, according to a new report. This is despite the measures taken by the law enforcement to curb the menace as increased involvement from the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife (MINFOF), CITES authorities and various other stakeholders, according to the report titled Analysis of Wildlife Court Cases in Cameroon: Jan 2010-Dec 2022. The most frequently…

In a dramatic development in Mzimba, Malawi, two Zambian nationals have been apprehended by the police on allegations of illegal possession of raw ivory. The arrests took place at Engalaweni in the district.

In Durban, a team comprising the Hawks and KZN Economic Infrastructure Task Team caught a man selling an elephant tusk. The 62-year-old was arrested in Greenwood Park. Police say the horn, which weighed some four-and-a-half-kilos, is estimated to be worth R2 million

The High Court in Malawi has rejected Chinese wildlife trafficking convict Lin Yun Hua's appeal against his 14- year sentence which was handed to him by Lilongwe Magistrate Court. Lin appealed against the conviction and the sentence but the High Court has rejected the appeal because it was filed outside the required period. Lin received 14 years in 2021 for dealing in rhino horn, alongside 14 years for possession of rhino horn and six years for money laundering.

The accused were arrested on November 16, 2022, by the officers from Benoni K9 with the assistance of the Pretoria K9 after they were found in possession of three elephant tusks (ivory) at Oriental Plaza Burna.