Germany’s environment ministry has proposed stricter laws on importing hunting trophies – a move that the president of Botswana says would “impoverish people in his country.”
Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has told German media that elephant numbers had exploded in Botswana as a result of conservation efforts.
He said trophy hunting helped keep these numbers in check.
“Germans should live together with the animals in the way you are trying to tell us to,” Masisi told German newspaper Bild.
A third of the world’s elephants
Botswana is home to over 130 000 elephants – a third of the world’s elephant population. Botswana cannot support these numbers, writes the BBC.
Masisi said the burgeoning elephant population is causing property damage, while herds were also eating crops and sparking human-elephant conflicts.
As a means of bringing down the population, Botwana has previously given 8 000 elephants to Angola, while offering hundreds more to Mozambique.
President Masisi is now extending a similar offer to Germany.
According to a report by the Humane Society International in 2021, Germany is the European Union’s largest importer of African elephant trophies, and hunting trophies in general.
Botswana and other Southern African countries profit from wealthy Westerners who pay for permits to hunt animals and take trophies (like heads or skins) back home.
This money is said to help conservation efforts in countries like Botswana, and support local people who will be less likely to poach the animals.
Opposition from animal welfare groups
Backed by Botswana’s Wildlife Minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu, he says in some areas there are more elephants than people.
“They are killing children who get in their path. They trample and eat farmers’ crops, leaving Africans hungry,” the minister said.
Animal rights groups have argued that the hunting practices are cruel, and should be banned.
While Botswana has banned trophy hunting in the past, it has since lifted restrictions after facing pressure from local communities.
The country now issues annual hunting quotas to ensure sustainability, it says.
Botswana has also argued that it should be allowed to earn money from selling its stockpiles of ivory. This has caused a backlash from animal rights groups and countries in East Africa, that say it would encourage poaching.
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