Botswana may lift ban on elephant hunting

Botswana, home to the world’s largest elephant population, may lift a ban on hunting for sport in the face of what the government says is growing conflict between people and wildlife, a move sure to provoke protest from animal welfare groups.

Conservationists estimate the country to have about 130,000 elephants, close to a third of the continent’s population, but the government says the number is closer to 230,000, causing problems for small-scale farmers.

“Communities have become very hostile and negative towards wildlife,” Konstantinos Markus, a member of parliament, said.

He said crop raiding by elephants in the Chobe district in the north had reduced yields of the staple maize crop by as much as 72%.

Botswana’s parliament passed a motion on June 21 to review and reconsider the ban, which was imposed by former president Ian Khama in 2014.

Mike Chase, a scientist with Elephants Without Borders, said bringing back trophy hunting would have little impact on the elephant population or crop destruction.

“Hunting occurs in the dry season and targets large bulls, while crop-raiding coincides with the rainy season and the perpetrators tend to be young bulls or family herds,” he said.

“The variation in the timing, space use, age and sex of problem elephants suggest hunting will have a limited effect on solving human-elephant conflict.