In recent days, the country of Botswana has had an international “clash” with Germany, which recently proposed a ban on the import of so-called hunting trophies. In response, Botswana has offered to send 20,000 elephantsso as to “make people understand what it is like to live alongside these animals”.
It is an almost surreal situation, but the president of the African country, Mokgweetsi Masisi, stated that more stringent laws could cause further problems for the community; speaking to a German tabloid he then reiterated that the offer “It’s not a joke at all”.
The reason for these statements is due to the fact that Botswana is home to the largest elephant population in the world – around 130,000 specimens. This causes quite a bit of trouble for local citizens, although numbers have been slightly reduced due to a mysterious elephant death that occurred recently.
“In some areas there are greater numbers of these animals than people. They trample fields and eat farmers’ crops, and pose a great danger to children simply by walking,” says Environment Minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu.
In 2019, Botswana had removed the hunting ban, and according to some this represented a form of population control, which would allow damage limitation as well as slow down illegal poaching.
At the same time, however, “trophy hunting” is considered cruel and harmful to the environment by several animal rights groups (after all, we know how incredible elephants are); It is therefore a rather difficult problem finding an ethical and effective solution does not seem simple at all.
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1 comment
There will never be an “ethical” way of sustainably using surplus elephants in Botswana.
This is because “ethics” are about humans’ feelings and sentiments, especially the “ethics” of people who don’t live with elephants and suffer accordingly..
Sustainable use, such as extremely selective trophy hunting, is done to improve the overall lives of local elephants and the lives of the Motswana who live with them. Elephants kill people, impose a nighttime curfew on villages, destroy crops and wreck precious and vital water supplies.
Selling a few post breeding bulls by local villages, via outfitters, to hunters provides compensation for damage and deaths, and provides a lot of meat. It shows something is being done about the menace.
It helps to prevent poaching (because poachers don’t pay) and the meat prevents the hunting of many smaller, rarer animals and birds for food (FAO).