Ban on elephant hunting in Botswana is overturned
Botswana on Wednesday announced the lifting of its ban on elephant hunting, attributing its decision to an apparent rise in “human- elephant conflict” caused by rising elephant numbers. Conservationists, however, criticized the move as not being grounded in science and said it could have negative effects on Botswana’s thriving wildlife- driven tourism industry.
Botswana is home to the world’s largest elephant population, with about 130,000 living in the southern African country, according to conservationists. After diamonds, tourism is Botswana’s biggest foreign-income earner.
The government banned hunting elephants in 2014 at the direction of thenPresident Ian Khama, a staunch conservationist. But the ban has been controversial in Botswana, where advocates for lifting the ban say the growing number of elephants has affected locals’ livelihoods.
When Mokgweetsi E.K. Masisi became president last year, he set up a committee to assess whether the ban should be overturned. Masisi also ended Botswana’s “shoot to kill” anti-poaching policy, which allowed the military to kill suspected poachers.
In a statement on Wednesday, Botswana’s Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism said the committee determined that with the hunting suspension in place, “human-elephant conflict and the consequent impact on livelihoods was increasing.”
The committee’s “general consensus from those consulted was that the hunting ban should be lifted,” the ministry said.
Botswana’s parliamentary elections are set to take place in October, and the hunting ban has become a campaign issue, particularly in rural areas where the elephant populations are more prominent.
Last year, lawmaker Konstantinos Markus told Reuters that constituents in his home region have been negatively affected by the ban. The growing elephant population meant the animals were increasingly coming into contact with farms, he said, where they trampled crops and harmed locals’ income.
“This harvest loss leaves the community with fewer options to take care of their households while perceptions of local communities towards wildlife conservation have changed since the hunting ban,” he told the news agency.
Masisi has stirred some controversy over his approach. Earlier this month, when leaders from Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia visited Botswana, Masisi gifted them stools made out of elephant feet.
Wildlife conservationists have expressed alarm not only at Masisi’s lifting of the hunting ban, but a broader shift in attitudes toward conservation away from Khama’s policies.
Government leaders in some southern African countries, including Botswana, have argued that loosening the restriction on ivory sales could allow them to use those profits to fund further conservation efforts.