How to break the law and get away with it
Botswana’s controversial Bo Chang donkey abattoir is back in business. It’s flouting the law and setting a dangerous precedent, reports Oscar Nkala...
17 Feb, 2021
Botswana poaching links
‘Gold rush’ as Botswana meets appetite for lion goods
Data investigation by Calistus Bosaletswe shows that over a 10-year period South Africa received most of the live lions and their products exported from Botswana...
20 Jan, 2021
The world’s largest ‘paper park’
Six years and €50-million since its creation, Oscar Nkala visits the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area to find out what impact it has had on wildlife and communities...
14 Dec, 2018
Confessions of an ivory poacher
Oscar Nkala talks to a jailed Zambian elephant poacher about the structure, financing and operations of cross-border smuggling gangs...
24 Aug, 2018
Botswana eyes donkey trade with Asia
Botswana has lifted its moratorium on donkey abattoirs and is scouting markets in Asia, writes Oscar Nkala...
01 Jun, 2018
The Zimbabwean abattoir that never opened, but has killed at least 105 donkeys
Licensing of the country’s first commercial donkey abattoir was ruled out last October, but at Battlefront Investments business carries on as usual. Oscar Nkala investigates...
15 May, 2018
Inside Botswana’s illegal donkey trade
Chinese traders are driving the cruel slaughter of donkeys across Southern Africa, for traditional potions that use gelatin in the hide. Investigation by Oscar Nkala...
24 Aug, 2017
Spy arrests lift lid on Botswana’s silent trafficking threat
Botswana has a global reputation for zero tolerance of poaching and wildlife crimes. In recent years, however, it has become vulnerable to insider wildlife crimes committed by rogue security forces....
10 May, 2017
‘The great emptiness is upon us’
Fifteen months after Zimbabwe's two infamous lion killings earned the Lower Dete Valley its reputation as the graveyard of Hwange National Park’s big cats, Oscar Nkala visited the area to...
07 Nov, 2016
Ivory’s double-edged sword at CITES
What do the CITES decisions mean for Southern Africa's elephants – and in particular, the world-famous Kruger National Park, where CITES has documented a 23% rise in elephant poaching? Yolandi...
04 Oct, 2016