TOOTH AND NAIL FIGHT Botswana invades London to stop Import Prohibition Bill
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LONDON: In a bold and unapologetic move, Minister of Tourism, Dumizweni Mthimkhulu and Kgosi Tawana led six others into the British Parliament, urging their counterparts to reconsider passing the proposed Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill. The six are a part of the 47-member Botswana delegation seeking to stop the Bill from seeing the light of day. The delegation includes government officials, representatives of affected community trusts and traditional leaders among others.
The Bill, which reached its second reading this week and expected to be concluded on Friday, seeks to ban the importation of hunted animal body parts into the United Kingdom. This stands to disadvantage local communities that on a daily basis face the brunt of human-wildlife conflict, who have been deriving financial benefits from controlled hunting of the animals for trophy collection by tourists from especially the West.
Government recently reported to parliament that post COVID, the communities generated P27million from concessions in the 2022 hunting season, and reached P31million in 2023, coming from the North America and Western European markets.
Other nations demonstrating solidarity with Botswana in her appeal before the Lords, given their shared concerns, include neighboring countries such as Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa, and Tanzania, who dispatched their ambassadors and senior diplomats to campaign against the Bill.
As the current session of the House of Lords continues, Lord Benjamin
Mancroft displayed unwavering support for Botswana’s cause by extending a special invitation to the leadership of the Botswana delegation to speak to British legislators at the onset of this week’s parliamentary proceedings.
The session, which commenced this week, saw the continuation of deliberations on the bill initially introduced by Henry Smith last September. Mancroft, along with 64 of his colleagues, fervently opposed the bill when it was first presented and appealed to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to reject it. Succumbing to mounting pressure, the government initially relented; however, the bill resurfaced again through a private member’s initiative.
Speaking to a select group of British legislators at the Westminster Houses of Parliament, Mthimkhulu made it very clear that Botswana does not support the bill as the country took a deliberate position to preserve those animals, countering the belief by the British that the hunting means the animals would go extinct. He added that Botswana through CITES is allowed to kill 400 elephants per annum and at no stage has Botswana ever reached or surpassed this number.
He said Botswana has sacrificed 40 percent of the land for wildlife conservation, that in 1984 had 54 000 elephants.
Today the country has 132 000 elephants and they have destroyed the wildlife habitat. The land where they live cannot sustain the population that has tripled. This has resulted in the current fierce wildlife and human conflict, where it is a common occurrence for members of communities to be trampled or mauled by elephants. The birth rate of an elephant is at 7000 new births per annum. The quota of 400 animals
that can be killed in a year is far less than the birth rate, which means the number of animals keep increasing. Nonetheless, Botswana has strict hunting rules that allow animals to reproduce.
Presenting its case, Botswana also brought a team from the academic world who supported their case using scientific evidence. They said research led by Dan Challender from the British Department of Biology in collaboration with the British Animal Conservation Research Unit in 2023 aimed to evaluate the potential impact of the proposed bill becoming law.
Their findings highlighted a failure to adequately recognise the benefits of trophy hunting to local communities, particularly its role in sustaining livelihoods.
The study noted that between 2000 and 2021, trophies from 115 listed species were imported into the UK, constituting only one percent of trade in CITES-listed species.
Contrary to the assumption of endangerment, the report revealed that the populations of these concerned animals were either stable, increasing or abundant. The absence of regulated hunting or other control measures could lead to adverse environmental consequences due to overpopulation, the research indicated.
It further suggested that the proposed UK Hunting Trophies Bill might have a detrimental rather than beneficial impact on the targeted species. Moreover, the British researchers concluded that trophy hunting did not emerge as a significant threat to any of the species imported into the UK since 2000, instead, it had the potential to offer considerable environmental and social advantages, such as enhanced biodiversity, as well as generating income and employment opportunities for local communities.