Where is Zimbabwe’s cyanide queen?
Police are keeping mum about the extradition of Li Song, wanted in connection with the use of poison in illegal wildlife trade. Pamenus Tuso investigates...
08 May, 2025
-
-
New data provides a glimpse into SA’s illegal pangolin trade
Data shows intelligence operations have confiscated 160 live Temminck’s pangolins from the illegal trade in South Africa over the past five years, reports Calistus Bosaletswe...
23 June, 2022 -
How pangolins are smuggled from Southern Africa
Southern African countries are grappling with illegal pangolin trade. Calistus Bosaletswe analyses data sources to find out how this trade takes place...
03 June, 2022 -
Inside the DRC’s great ape trade
International trade in live baby primates is a by-product of the roaring illegal bushmeat trade in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Oscar Nkala investigates...
19 May, 2022 -
Inside India’s illegal shark-fin trade
India is the world’s third-largest shark catcher. It banned the export of shark fins in 2015, but the illegal trade is still thriving. Shamsheer Yousaf & Monica Jha investigate...
18 February, 2022 -
Emerging threats to China’s snow leopard population
Online trade and China's ambitious Belt and Road development plans pose new threats to the ‘poster boy’ of ecosystem conservation in Asia, reports Hsiuwen Liu...
31 January, 2022 -
Exposing India’s secret snow leopard trade
Sadiq Naqvi unveils data and routes behind India’s underground trade in snow leopards and their body parts...
03 December, 2021 -
Tracking the ‘mountain ghosts’ of the Himalayas
Scattered data is complicating efforts to protect snow leopards against illegal trade, Varsha Singh reports from Uttarakhand in northern India...
26 November, 2021 -
Tourism adds to pressures on snow leopards in northern Pakistan
Investigation exposes illegal trade in the skins of rare species right in the heart of the main tourist attraction of Gilgit-Baltistan...
19 November, 2021 -
Nepal’s cross-border snow leopard smuggling networks
Kathmandu has become a hub of international wildlife crime that poses an additional threat to the conservation of rare snow leopards. Tufan Neupane investigates...
12 November, 2021 -
China’s snow leopard crimes
China is the biggest market of illegal trade in snow leopards. A data investigation by Hsiuwen Liu uncovers recent organised trafficking in the rare cats...
05 November, 2021 -
Business as usual for Hong Kong’s wildlife masterminds
Data investigation shows Hong Kong lacks the legal power to crack down on international criminal syndicates profiting off its wildlife trafficking routes. Hsiuwen Liu reports...
19 May, 2021 -
Vietnam: Traffickers versus Covid-19
Could illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam come back stronger after Covid-19? Trang Bui and Lam Quan spoke with traffickers and analysed 10 years’ worth of data to find out...
21 April, 2021 -
Tigers à la carte
Captive tigers are big business in France. A new law to ban wild animals in circuses could change this – or end up driving the market underground. Guillaume Pajot investigates...
12 March, 2021 -
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 February, 2021 -
Wildlife has no part in TCM, say Chinese doctors
Yuexuan Chen talks to qualified practitioners about wildlife treatments in traditional Chinese medicine, and the perceptions of Western media...
12 October, 2020 -
China urged to burn stockpiles of pangolin scales
Environmental groups say a symbolic gesture would send a clear signal to the public that use of pangolin scales is no longer permitted. Alexis Kriel reports...
12 June, 2020 -
The human face of tragic Wuhan
Oxpeckers associate Yuexuan Chen tells her story of Hubei, the Chinese province at the epicentre of the coronavirus crisis...
20 February, 2020 -
Strange (non)case of pangolin killings in Mozambique
An apparently open-and-shut case of pangolin poaching and torture hit a brick wall when it got to court. Ed Stoddard investigates...
14 October, 2019 -
Curbing consumption of pangolins
Use of pangolins for bushmeat and African traditional medicine is complicated by the growing, unsustainable demand for scales from Asia. Alexis Kriel investigates...
05 July, 2019 -
How Chinese Flying Money ‘finances’ illegal wildlife trade
Feiqian is the single biggest obstacle in investigating organised wildlife trafficking and related crimes, a year-long investigation by John Grobler established...
28 June, 2019 -
Africa’s pangolins caught in ‘the perfect storm’
Recent seizures of huge amounts of scales have turned Nigeria into Africa’s key illegal pangolin exporting country. Alexis Kriel investigates what is driving the trade...
06 May, 2019 -
Oxpeckers investigation wins Asian journalism award
Transnational investigation into abalone smuggling from South Africa to China wins at Asian Environmental Journalism Awards...
22 March, 2019 -
Exposing the abalone-rhino poaching links
John Grobler investigates the overlap between abalone and rhino horn smuggling syndicates operating between South Africa, Namibia and Hong Kong...
08 March, 2019 -
Kenya – the epicentre of East Africa’s donkey crisis
Stolen donkeys are smuggled across borders with Tanzania and Ethiopia to feed Kenya’s expanding abattoirs and Chinese demand for donkey-hide glue. Oscar Nkala investigates...
28 November, 2018 -
Fury at release of rhino ‘pseudo-hunt’ kingpin
Outrage greeted the early release of notorious Thai trafficker Chumlong Lemtongthai, who used false South African hunting permits to launder rhino horns. Simon Bloch reports...
13 September, 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 June, 2018 -
East Africa’s ivory smuggled out of Mozambican ports
Modus operandi of ivory smuggling networks exposed after recent arrest of a 'mastermind' in the illicit trade from Pemba to China. Estacio Valoi investigates...
07 November, 2017 -
Border bandits turn to donkey smuggling
Donkey smugglers are taking advantage of cross-border criminal networks to meet the growing demand for hides. Oscar Nkala investigates...
05 October, 2017 -
Furore over Namibia’s donkey slaughter plans
Namibia has given the go-ahead to two donkey abattoirs that plan to export meat to Vietnam and skins to China. They have met stiff opposition from locals, reports Oscar Nkala...
28 August, 2017 -
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 August, 2017 -
From Mozambique to China, money talks
More than 90% of Mozambican timber is exported to China at less than its true value. Estacio Valoi uncovers collusion between shipping agents, customs officials and port managers...
22 August, 2017 -
State forest capture
Ancient hardwood trees in the Caprivi State Forest are being looted by a Chinese syndicate exploiting legal loopholes and de-bushing tenders for farming. John Grobler investigates...
09 August, 2017 -
How SA’s abalone ends up on China’s plates
Crystal Chow investigates how the race over the most sought-after delicacy in Asia embodies the developmental dilemma in post-apartheid South Africa...
09 June, 2017 -
The horn scam at Windhoek’s airport
The Namibian authorities don’t seem to be in any hurry to shut down a rhino horn smuggling syndicate that has infiltrated security at Windhoek’s airport, writes John Grobler...
02 December, 2016 -
Namibia diaries: the good, the bad, the ugly
Depending on your views about legal trade in wildlife products, the past week was either a good week or a very good week for Namibian conservation, writes John Grobler...
04 October, 2016 -
A mysterious dead hand driving Namibia’s poaching
After a two-year investigation, John Grobler exposes the totem-based networks facilitating transnational rhino horn smuggling and defeating the pursuit of suspects...
15 September, 2016 -
Chinese-military axis behind Zambian poaching crisis
Zambia’s elephant population has declined by about 90% due to poaching. Its black rhino population is extinct. Oscar Nkala visited the border town of Livingstone t...
21 June, 2016 -
How to steal an ivory stockpile
Zimbabwean parks employees allegedly managed to steal ivory from the Hwange stockpile since 2012 and export it to international trafficking syndicates. Oscar Nkala...
22 April, 2016 -
Chinese demand drives Zambia’s ‘amateur’ ivory gangs
Dwindling elephant numbers and heightened demand for ivory from Chinese trafficking syndicates are fuelling a cross-border poaching war in the Zambezi region. Oscar Nka...
12 April, 2016 -
Namibia’s secret ivory business
Oxpeckers Associate Shi Yi set out to investigate Chinese links in Namibia’s poaching crisis, and ended up in the middle of a sting operation that nabbed a former policeman...
14 March, 2016 -
Vietnam warning follows Oxpeckers exposé
In a move directly linked to an Oxpeckers investigation, the Vietnamese government has warned tour operators not to support illegal wildlife product processing workshops</s...
03 March, 2016 -
Trafficking market goes wild in Vietnam
Hongqiao Liu discovers how easy it is to smuggle illegal wildlife products through China’s porous border with Vietnam – where trafficking on an industrial scale happens openly...
27 November, 2015 -
Who are Namibia’s Chinese smugglers?
Chinese journalist Shi Yi followed the trial of four alleged rhino horn traffickers in Namibia, and then paid a visit to their home villages in China to investigate their backgroun...
25 November, 2015 -
Namibia needs China’s help to curb poaching
The two governments need to collaborate on environmental issues to combat wildlife crime, says chief of the Directorate of Parks and Wildlife Management...
16 November, 2015 -
Inner workings of a Chinese poaching syndicate
Court evidence reveals the typical methdology deployed by one of five organised crime syndicates believed to be active in Namibian wildlife trafficking, reports John Grobler...
23 October, 2015 -
Chinese rhino poaching suspects in court
Details about the origins of a rhino poaching syndicate and their modus operandi are emerging in a Namibian court case. By Oxpeckers Reporters in Windhoek...
21 September, 2015 -
Caught in the crossfire: how cattle and Chinese mining interests are killing off Namibia’s black rhinos
Behind Namibia's poaching crisis lies a deadly combination of corruption, drought, Chinese mining and construction ventures, and land-hungry communal cattle farmers...
17 July, 2015 -
Spotlight on Zambezi’s poaching problem
The Zambezi border region where five Southern Africa countries intersect is a wildlife trafficking hotspot. Hongxiang Huang investigated the smugglers' links to China...
11 February, 2014 -
The Chinese ivory-smugglers in Mozambique
Who are the Chinese citizens smuggling ivory out of Africa, and how are they doing it? Oxpeckers fellow Huang Hongxiang went to Mozambique to investigate...
06 December, 2013 -
China’s view on opening trade in rhino horn
Wan Ziming, head of China’s Management Authority at CITES, spoke to Hongqiao Liu about his concerns over opening trade in rhino horn ...
26 November, 2013 -
Oxpeckers talks to Traffic’s Tom Milliken about China’s role in rhino horn trafficking
Rhino horn bangles a new fashion item? The global wildlife trade expert talks to Hongqiao Liu about China's growing appetite for horn, and what that means for the last rhinos...
19 November, 2013 -
We chat rhino horn
Online selling of rhino horn products is booming. Most of the trading takes place in Fujian Province, reports Hongqiao Liu...
03 October, 2013 -
Chinese connections in African ivory & rhino horn markets
For the first time, journalists from mainland China worked with African journalists on an undercover investigation into the Chinese connection with ivory and rhino horns market in ...
03 October, 2013
TOOLS
#WildEye allows you to track environmental crime across the globe
#PowerTracker allows you to track renewable and coal based energy sources
#MineAlert allows you to track and share mining applications and licences
Track biodiversity threats caused by mining licences across Africa
Use ClimaTracker to track weather changes and how these will affect you
Exposing global environmental crime stories
Track developments in rhino poaching court cases across Southern Africa
Instant access to data on rhino deaths and poaching incidents since 2010
#GreenAlert helps you track & share environmental impact assessments
GET INVOLVED
