Fourth Chinese suspected poacher arrested in Namibia rhino horn smuggling scandal

THE three Chinese men accused of trying to smuggle 14 rhinoceros horns out of Namibia in March last year could be joined in the dock by a compatriot, after another suspect was arrested in connection with their case this week. The fourth suspect to be arrested about the alleged attempt to smuggle rhino horns and a leopard skin out of Namibia on 24 March last year is a 40-year-old Chinese resident of Otjiwarongo, Wang Hui, who was apprehended in Windhoek on Monday evening. A police spokesperson, deputy commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi, said yesterday the police have been on Wang's trail since the arrest of three other Chinese nationals who are charged with having attempted to smuggle 14 rhino horns and a leopard skin out of Namibia in March last year. Wang left the country when the three men were arrested, though, Kanguatjivi said. Wang appeared before Magistrate George Mbundu in the Windhoek Magistrate's Court in Katutura on Wednesday. At this stage, he has been charged with unlawfully dealing in controlled wildlife products. His case was postponed to 10 June after public prosecutor Anthony Wilson informed the magistrate that the prosecutor general would have to decide if Wang should be added as an accused to the case of the other three alleged rhino horn traffickers. Wang is being kept in custody in the meantime. His three compatriots - Li Xiaoliang (31), Li Zhibing (53), and Pu Xuexin (49) - were arrested at Hosea Kutako International Airport on 24 March last year, after 14 rhino horns and a leopard skin were found in two suitcases that Li Zhibing and Li Xiaoliang had checked in as part of their luggage on a flight with which they were planning to leave Namibia. The three men claimed during a bail hearing in May last year that they did not know what the suitcases in their possession contained. Li Zhibing told a magistrate during their bail hearing that a Chinese citizen living in Zambia had asked him to take the suitcases with him to China. He said he was promised US$3 000 as payment if he delivered the suitcases to someone in Shanghai. He also told the court that he had asked Li Xiaoliang to book one of the suitcases in as part of his luggage. The court was further told during the bail hearing that the three men would be accommodated by a Chinese friend of theirs at Otjiwarongo, and that the same friend was willing to pay their bail, if the court granted them bail. Li, Li and Pu are scheduled to appear in the Windhoek Regional Court again on 24 June on two main charges of unlawful export of controlled wildlife products, alternatively unlawfully dealing in or possessing controlled wildlife products, and a third main charge of the acquisition, use, possession or taking out of Namibia of property that forms part of the proceeds of unlawful activities. Source: Namibian

Namibia ban private guns in parks as 2015 rhino body count rises to 66

In an effort to curb an upsurge in wildlife crimes, Minister of Environment and Tourism Pohamba Shifeta says no private guns would be allowed into national parks following a series of illegal poaching of rhinos and elephants. Not all carcasses of rhinos and elephants that have been found since the beginning of 2015 showed signs of poaching, Shifeta has revealed. He said some of the animals could have died due to natural causes while some died fighting among themselves. "Some of them it is because of fighting. They fight a serious fight. That is why we have to conduct post mortems on all the carcasses to determine the causes of death," he said.

About 60 rhinos were found in the Etosha National Park, while six were found in the Palmwag area in the Kunene Region since the beginning of this year. Poaching figures have shown that last year, 24 rhinos and 78 elephants were killed. This, after an extended period of low wildlife crime in Namibia. Shifeta is, however, not convinced that the environment and tourism wardens have not detected or arrested anyone in the parks. He said some carcasses were found close to each other, hence they have to do ballistic investigations to see whether the bullets are coming from ministry riffles or not. Shifeta said he found out that people have been entering the park with private guns - a situation he says creates room for poachers. "Currently, we started to test all the rifles. I heard there are people with private guns and I said no private guns anymore on the premises. We are going to get there and we are going to arrest a lot of people. If you have a gun, keep it away from the park. Leave your gun at the police station, they welcome to keep your gun even up to 10 years. I could see resistance, especially some 'white colleagues' saying that they are not the ones doing it. I told them I don't know who is doing it. What they do is seal their guns, but you can use and seal it later," he said. With the poached rhinos in Etosha, he said some carcasses are too close to the gate for officials, including a huge presence of law enforcement officers, not to have detected any poaching. "How can incidences happen next to the gate undetected? Some happen next to the waterholes but no one detects them. It is like someone taking money under your pillow while you are there. I want to understand, how can these people be from outside? I want a report, although we already suspect people inside," he demanded. He said poaching is mainly concentrated in the the north and south west of the country. "I went there and the situation looks normal to them. I asked them: 'Do you really understand what the public feels'? It's an area that is fenced, but you have not captured anyone and you don't have new ideas. You go to bed and you have no idea. I warned them they should not be surprised if this week we make a serious move there with immediate effect ... The situation cannot be left uncontained," he reacted. Shifeta said there is a clear requirement for a strategy to upgrade law enforcement and wildlife crime prevention capacity in the country, as well as for immediate action that should be part of, and feed into, the overall strategy. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism has been working with other law enforcement and conservation agencies to put short- and long-term strategic measures in place to stop poaching and illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products. The measures involve issues of human capacity, surveillance, patrolling and detection. Currently, members of the Namibian Police Force (NamPol) have been deployed in the Etosha National Park, the Bwabwata National Park and the Palmwag tourism concession area. NamPol and the Namibian Defence Force are also conducting regular aerial patrols. Shifeta assured that investigations would continue in all areas where illegal hunting of rhinos and elephants were reported. "We continue to invest more resources in combating illegal hunting of our rhinos and elephants. The situation can be described as a priority crime and therefore more resources need to be invested in our efforts to stop these illegal activities," he added. - Source: New Era/NAMPA/

Namibian govt doubles whistle-blowers pay as 2015 rhino poaching toll hits 60

IN a desperate bid to track down elusive poachers, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism has increased the reward money of whistle-blowers on poaching from N$30 000 to N$60 000. Tourism minister Pohamba Shifeta said government would rely on anyone who has information on poaching incidences to come forward as one of its efforts to put an end to the increasing illegal activities. Shifeta yesterday said that poachers were targeting Namibians to carry out their dirty work and called on members of the public to speak out if they know something while investigations into the existing cases continue. Six suspects have been arrested so far in connection with poaching in the northern parts of the country. The minister said poachers have switched from using hunting rifles to automatic guns. “Wildlife trafficking is a multi-million dollar criminal enterprise that has expanded to more than just a conservation concern,” he said. Last week, the ministry also said that several of its staff members were among the suspects being investigated over the poaching incidences, after announcing that over 60 carcasses were discovered, 54 of which were discovered in the Etosha National Park. Shifeta said the country lost 24 rhinos to poaching last year, while this year, 60 rhinos have been poached which were all discovered during aerial patrols. “As for elephants, 78 were poached in 2014, and 23 animals have been poached so far this year,” he said. Police patrols have also been increased from 40 to 140 in the Etosha National Park, Bwabwata National Park and Palmwag Tourism Concession Area. No Namibia Defence Force soldiers have been dispatched on the ground yet, as the ministry said it was still evaluating how they will be dispatched. Shifeta also said all the carcasses that were recently discovered will go through post-mortem tests to determine whether the causes of deaths were natural or a result of poaching. He said following an extended period of low wildlife crime in Namibia, there is a clear requirement for a strategy to upgrade law enforcement and wildlife crime prevention capacity in the country. “As the ministry responsible for wildlife protection, we have been working with other law enforcement and conservation agencies to put short and longer term strategic measures in place to stop the current poaching and illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products. The short and long term measures involve issues of human capacity, surveillance, patrolling and detection,” he said. However, the ministry also said it was skeptical about partnering private firms and embassies as they could be wolves in sheep's clothing. Deputy minister Tommy Nambahu said the ministry has realised that it was being outsmarted by poachers. “There is no silver bullet to this problem. We have to put in a host of measures that must be put in place. We are being outwitted by these criminals but we are sure that our efforts will yield results,” he said. Nambahu further said that the public should not panic as the ministry has the situation under control. Nambahu said that government is still researching the use of drones in Namibia before it can make use of them. Source: Namibian

US Bill to ban importation, possession and sale of African Big Five trophies

New York State Senator Tony Avella will today introduce a Bill that would ban the importation, possession, sale or transportation in the city of five species of animals native to Africa. The Bill, if it sails through, will be a huge blow to the country’s wildlife industry still smarting from last year’s US sanctions with pressure rising against the sale of live elephants to China, France and the United Arab Emirates. The Bill was drafted by the Friends of Animals’ (FoA) Wildlife Law Programme director Michael Harris. The legislation would protect the African elephant, lion, leopard, black rhino and white rhino. “The primary reason that each of these species is facing extinction is human sport hunting,” Harris said in a statement. “Many of these hunts are purchased by Americans, and the trophies are imported into or through the state of New York. Domestic legislation like that being proposed today is vital to any hope of long-term survival of these species.” Last April, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) suspended imports of sport-hunted African elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Tanzania over alleged questionable management practices. USFWS said “anecdotal evidence, such as the widely publicised (cyanide) poisoning last year of 300 elephants in Hwange National Park, suggests that Zimbabwe’s elephants are also under siege”. “Given the current situation on the ground in both Tanzania and Zimbabwe, the Service is unable to make positive findings required under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) and the Endangered Species Act to allow import of elephant trophies from these countries,” USFWS said. The ban is still to be removed with local safari operators moaning on the loss of the key US market. Edita Birnkrant, campaigns director for Friends of Animals, said Americans continue to “see sport-hunting as romantic, or for that matter as ethical”. “Until we can get national bans put in place to reduce the number of sport-hunted African big 5 species brought into this country, it is vital that states like New York, where a large number of these trophies are imported into because JFK is a major point of entry from Africa, take action on their own,” Birnkrant said. Birnkrant said while hunters argue that without sport hunting, African governments would not have any money for conservation, “sport hunting only further imperils African wildlife”. The move also comes as pressure is being piled on Zimbabwe to stop exportation of baby elephants. Government insists the elephant population, at 43 000, has exceeded its carrying capacity at Hwange National Parks adding that revenue realised would be channelled towards conservation purposes. An animal rights group, People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta), has ratcheted up pressure against the live animal sales advising Minister of Environment, Water and Climate Saviour Kasukuwere to stop the exercise. Peta US director Pamela Anderson said she has been “deeply upset by the heart-breaking news about the 80 or so baby elephants who were torn away from their families, many even witnessing their own family’s gruesome slaughter”. Anderson said “these terrified babies are reportedly being held captive while awaiting sale to China and the United Arab Emirates, far from their homelands, where they will never see their families again and never have any semblance of a normal or happy life”. “I’m sure that you’ve heard the international outcry and the pleas that these elephants be released back to their herds. I am writing to you to urge you to do everything in your power to assist in the effort to stop such profiteering at the expense of wildlife,” Anderson wrote in a letter to Kasukuwere. Prince Mupazviriho, Environment, Water and Climate permanent secretary, was yesterday unavailable for comment on the latest onslaught on the country’s wildlife industry. Kasukuwere was also unavailable for comment. Source: Newsday, Zimbabwe

Zim court sentences Zambian poacher to 10 years over 94 kg of raw elephant ivory

HARARE, March 26 (Xinhua) -- A Zimbabwe court has sentenced a Zambian poacher to 10 years in jail for illegal possession of raw ivory. Walbita Lindunda, 38, was arrested by Zimbabwean authorities in March last year after being found with 94 kg of raw ivory worth 14, 100 U.S. dollars. Hwange Provincial Magistrate Lindiwe Maphosa this week convicted Lundinda and sentenced him to 10 years in prison for illegal possession of ivory and three months for illegal entry into the country, the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said Thursday. Zimbabwe has one of Africa's prime elephant sanctuaries, home to about 100,000 elephants. But in recent years, lack of conservation funds and resources led to a surge of ivory poaching, most of which involved collusion of local and foreign perpetrators. Hwange National Park, located in the western part of the country, is hit hardest by poaching. In 2013, poachers killed more than 100 elephants in the park and countless other animals by cyanide poisoning. Despite the arrest of several local perpetrators found dosing the water pans with poison, the alleged foreign master-head who engineered the large-scale crime remains at large. Source: Online

Australia bans importation of lion trophy, parts and remains

Australia’s Minister for the Environment has banned the importation of lion parts and remains into the country, saying that canned lion hunting’s time has passed. Greg Hunt, Australia’s Minister for the Environment, has delivered a broadside against the lucrative business of canned lion hunting. In a sitting of the country’s Parliament in Canberra yesterday evening, he had the following to say: “I have signed an order to prevent the importation into Australia of African lion parts and remains. This order will take effect immediately. It is part of the global movement and I hope part of a significant movement to end canned hunting forever. It is a practice that never had a time, but it is a practice whose time has surely come to pass.” Australia’s decision is also likely to impact on all those facilities breeding lions for other commercial purposes, such as petting, “walking with lions” and the lion bone trade. Inevitably, when captive young lions pass the age of being ‘safe’ to interact with humans, the writing is on the wall for them – either to feed the market for their body parts or as targets for hunters. Australians might not make up the largest segment of South Africa’s canned lion trophy hunting industry – that dubious status belongs to the Americans – but they do come in fair numbers each year to fell full-maned captive-bred lions with high-powered rifles and cross bows. It’s called a sport by those behind the sights, but a sport is surely a contest entered into by willing opponents? (For the uninitiated, a canned hunt is one in which the target animal has in almost all instances been bred and raised in captivity until it is mature enough to be of interest to a hunter whose subsequent ‘hunt’ is virtually guaranteed of success.) In such circumstances, to let loose with a bullet or bolt at an unsuspecting quarry that has no means or hope of escape or self-defence seems to define the antithesis of a sport. Be that as it may, it helps to see lion hunting in the context of lions in general. In short, the species is in a bad way. Nearly a century ago, as many as 200,000 lions roamed Africa’s savannahs, but in the intervening years, that number has crashed to fewer than 30,000. Lions have vanished from over 80 percent of their historic range and are now extinct in 28 countries. Of the remaining 27 countries in which lions survive, 26 are in Africa and one is in Asia. Only seven countries have populations greater than 1,000 wild lions. “Lions have slipped under the conservation radar for too long,” says Dr Guy Balme of Panthera, a leading NGO whose mission isto ensure the future of wild cats through scientific leadership and global conservation action. “If we do not act now, lions will find themselves in the same dire predicament as their Asian counterpart, the tiger.” The reasons for the lion’s predicament are many and complex including retaliatory action by herders and farmers (Kenya alone loses 100 of its 2,000 lions a year in this manner), a dramatic loss of habitat, and overhunting of natural prey. In this respect alone it would be difficult for even the most ardent so-called sport hunter to justify hunting lions for pleasure. Even in South Africa there are fewer than 3,000 wild lions, so when you consider that more than 1,000 lions are shot every year by trophy hunters, it begs the question: Where do they come from? In the South African context, the answer is easy, for there are some 160 breeding farms here that hold at least 6,000 lions; maybe as many as 8,000. Arguments that these captive-bred and frequently highly habituated lions take the hunting pressure off wild lions is nonsense. One look at crashing lion numbers tells that story. Some breeders even pose as conservationists whose aim is to re-introduce lions to the wild. But this is empty rhetoric as very few captive lions have been successfully re-wilded anywhere in Africa. No, these lions are bred for one purpose only: canned hunting. Hunters prefer the term ‘captive’ to canned, but Ian Michler, a South African investigative writer, safari operator, conservationist and outspoken critic of trophy hunting and canned lion hunting in particular, dismisses the euphemistic ruse. “Stop hiding behind nuances,” he says to the South African government and professional hunting bodies around the world. “Captive hunting is still canned hunting: the word ‘captive’ is as it reads – lions are being bred in captivity to be killed in captivity.” “Aussie hunters have been paying up to $75,000 to hunt and kill lions and other exotic big game in so-called ‘canned hunting’ farms or wildlife reserves in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique,” said Australian MP Jason Wood. “Canned hunting is a cruel and barbaric practice where wildlife is bred for one purpose and that is to be killed in a small enclosure.” Isabel McCrea, the International Fund for Animal Welfare’s regional director in Australia, said she welcomed Hunt’s ‘bold’ ban on canned hunting trophies: “This decision reflects the Australian public’s abhorrence at the inhumane practice of canned hunting, in which lions are reared in captivity and hunted in enclosures.” “It shouldn’t exist,” added Hunt. “It is about raising the most majestic of creatures for a singular purpose and that is to kill them, to shoot them for pleasure and for profit.” In his statement, Hunt paid particular tribute to Jason Wood, “who has brought the issue of canned hunting to the Parliament. I frankly was not aware that such a practice could exist in the 21st Century. It’s a hangover from the 19th Century in the 21st Century and Jason has been unrelenting… But it is the people that have driven this change. So tonight, I want to announce that Australia is committing to be a leader in ending the insidious practice of canned hunting.” Michler visited Australia late last year to lobby for this outcome. “I can only laud the action taken by Minister Hunt and his Parliamentary colleagues,” he said, “and I fervently hope that Australia’s brave stance will encourage other major hunting nations to follow suit. This news is as much a victory for all those people and organisations that have been fighting against the twin horrors of predator breeding and canned hunting over the last 20 years as it is for the animals themselves.” Michler went on to say that the Professional Hunting Association of South Africa had only itself to blame. “Instead of coming down hard on canned hunting outfits, their silence has been a tacit approval.” In the coming week Michler heads off to the European Parliament where he will be lobbying for similar action from Europe. “In time, we will also target the United States,’ he said, ‘as this is where the majority of hunters come from.” (Some 80 percent of lion trophies are shipped back to the United States.) In his summing up of the situation, Minister Hunt had this to say: “In our own way we are all, all custodians of the great creatures of the world. For me, for us, for all of us here at Federation Square, the lions are an iconic reminder of the great plains of Africa, of the natural world, of the majesty that has been and I hope and pray, and to which I am committed, will continue not just for our children, but for generations hence.” IFAW said canned hunting had contributed to this decline through direct kills and also by skewing the genetic balance of lion populations by taking large males out of the gene pool to be shot. Isabel McCrea, IFAW’s regional director, said she welcomed Hunt’s “bold” ban on canned hunting trophies. “This decision reflects the Australian public’s abhorrence at the inhumane practice of canned hunting, in which lions are reared in captivity and hunted in enclosures,” she said. Source: Conservation Action (SA)

Namibian to stiffen conservation laws as Chinese poachers ransack game parks

A PARLIAMENTARY committee is recommending that Namibia's nature conservation laws should be changed to improve law enforcement in the battle against poaching. In a new report tabled to the National Assembly, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Economics, Natural Resources and Public Administration says government should speed up the drafting of legislation to improve law enforcement and prevent the increase of poaching in Namibia. It also recommends that the Ministry of Mines and Energy should consult regional authorities and local communities before allowing mining activities to take place in wildlife breeding areas, especially for the rhinoceros. The committee also recommended that the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration should initiate an extradition agreement between Namibia and Angola to help combat cross-border wildlife crimes more effectively.

The report flows from a consultative meeting that the committee held at Wereldsend in the Kunene region's Sesfontein constituency in August last year. Among the people who attended the meeting were community leaders from the area and the Kunene region, representatives of 12 conservancies in the region, people involved in conservation and tourism in Kunene, and representatives of the police, the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, the Office of the Prosecutor General and the Legal Assistance Centre. Among the concerns expressed to the committee during the meeting were views that mining activities are disrupting rhinos in their breeding areas and contributing to an increase in poaching, that the influx of people from elsewhere into areas where rhinos are found is worsening the problem of poaching, and that there is no extradition agreement between Namibia and Angola, the committee reported. Concern was also expressed about the absence of an office of the Namibian Police's Protected Resources Unit in Kunene, where most of Namibia's endangered black rhinos are found. The committee further recorded concerns about the presence in Kunene of Chinese nationals doing the same business as local residents. With China and countries in south-east Asia reported to be the main markets where rhino horns and elephant tusks are smuggled to from Africa, several Chinese citizens have been arrested and charged with crimes involving wildlife - including the alleged smuggling of rhino horns, ivory and pangolins - in Namibia in recent years. The committee also heard that when Namibia's acclaimed conservancy programme was started, there was a sense of ownership among local communities in conservancy areas, but that this is no longer the case in some conservancies in Kunene. Poaching is partly caused by people not benefiting from conservancies in Kunene, while the situation in, for example the Tsumkwe area, where communities seem to derive more benefits from conservancies, is different, the committee was told. Source: Namibian