Elephant hunting permits in demand Botswana

Licences to kill elephants sold for up to £30,000 (NZ$60,400) yesterday as the government of Botswana relaxed a six-year ban on trophy hunting to hold an auction of permits, against fierce opposition from animal charities and activists.

Permits to shoot 70 of the animals at various locations were snapped up at an auction in the capital, Gaborone. They will now be marketed to foreign clients willing to pay about £65,000 (NZ$131,000) apiece for them.

Attempts by wealthy conservationists to bid for the licences and spare the elephants were thwarted by the authorities through a late condition of sale: that the permits could go only to bidders with hunting qualifications and demonstrable experience in hunting.

One of those who had hoped to buy 50 permits to save the animals said that if he and his peers had been allowed to bid, they would easily have matched the £1.85 million the government raised from the sale.

He predicted that Botswana’s tourism industry would suffer from the negative publicity linked to hunting. Elephant hunting is legal in neighbouring Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi has insisted that commercial hunting is the best answer to clashes between elephants and Botswana’s population of 2.3 million. The country is home to 30 per cent of Africa’s elephant population, but they are blamed for destroying crops and trampling villages in areas where they roam freely.

Funds raised from the hunting auction were earmarked to compensate communities affected by marauding animals, the government said.

Critics say the scheme is intended to divert attention from a poaching crisis in which scores of elephants and 30 per cent of Botswana’s rhinos have been killed in the last 18 months.