Rhino poached outside capital
Investigations are ongoing at a farm on the outskirts of Windhoek where a rhino was poached over the weekend and its horns removed.
Two rhinos were shot on Friday on a farm located near Aris and one of them survived the attack.
The spokesperson of the police, Deputy Commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi, late yesterday afternoon told Namibian Sun that no progress had been made thus far and the investigation teams were still on the ground gathering evidence.
Environment spokesperson Romeo Muyunda also confirmed the latest poaching incident.
Neither the police nor the ministry could provide further information at this stage.
This brings the total number of rhinos poached this year to 28 in comparison to the 60 poached rhinos last year. In 2015, a total of 95 rhino were poached and 56 rhino in 2014.
The tourism minister, Pohamba Shifeta, last month released the latest poaching statistics which indicated that rhino poaching had declined by about 50% from 2016.
He said the strategies the ministry had implemented against poaching were working.
“We want to eradicate poaching completely. Hopefully by next year, things will change with a dedicated anti-poaching unit,” he said.
Shifeta said these successes demonstrated that the investment in anti-poaching efforts was worthwhile.
“This is contrary to critics [who say] that the government is not doing enough and is ill-prepared to deal with the poaching problem.”
He added that the ministry had managed to achieve these results despite financial constraints and that was thanks to the security forces and those working on the ground.
ELLANIE SMIT
Two rhinos were shot on Friday on a farm located near Aris and one of them survived the attack.
The spokesperson of the police, Deputy Commissioner Edwin Kanguatjivi, late yesterday afternoon told Namibian Sun that no progress had been made thus far and the investigation teams were still on the ground gathering evidence.
Environment spokesperson Romeo Muyunda also confirmed the latest poaching incident.
Neither the police nor the ministry could provide further information at this stage.
This brings the total number of rhinos poached this year to 28 in comparison to the 60 poached rhinos last year. In 2015, a total of 95 rhino were poached and 56 rhino in 2014.
The tourism minister, Pohamba Shifeta, last month released the latest poaching statistics which indicated that rhino poaching had declined by about 50% from 2016.
He said the strategies the ministry had implemented against poaching were working.
“We want to eradicate poaching completely. Hopefully by next year, things will change with a dedicated anti-poaching unit,” he said.
Shifeta said these successes demonstrated that the investment in anti-poaching efforts was worthwhile.
“This is contrary to critics [who say] that the government is not doing enough and is ill-prepared to deal with the poaching problem.”
He added that the ministry had managed to achieve these results despite financial constraints and that was thanks to the security forces and those working on the ground.
ELLANIE SMIT
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