LICENSE TO KILL: Botswana Auctions-Off First Licenses to Kill Elephants Since Ending Five-Year Ban

Botswana will allow foreign hunters to shoot 202 of its 272-elephant quota for the year, as well as to export the trophies. Elephant numbers in Africa have fallen from 1.3 million in 1979, to only 415,000 in 2015.

OLIVIA ROSANE: ‘Botswana held its first auction of licenses to hunt elephants since President Mokgweetsi Masisi lifted a five-year ban on the controversial practice in May of 2019. Masisi’s government has argued that legal hunting is necessary to reduce conflict between elephants and humans, but some conservationists fear that reintroducing the practice could actually encourage more illegal poaching, Reuters reported…

The government was prepared to auction off seven hunting packages permitting the killing of ten elephants each. However, only six bidders were able to put down the reserve fee of 2 million pula ($181,000), according to Reuters. The packets were purchased by expedition operators who will sell them to trophy hunters at a markup, HuffPost explained. Most trophy hunters who come to southern Africa are from the U.S., and Botswana will allow foreign hunters to shoot 202 of its 272-elephant quota for the year, as well as to export the trophies…

Conservation groups argue that hunting is not an effective means of curbing conflict between elephants and humans… “SHAME ON YOU President Masisi, we will not forget,” human and animal rights group the EMS Foundation tweeted in response to the auction… Rosemary Alles, co-founder and president of the Global March for Elephants and Rhinos, said criticized his successor’s decision. “I have been against hunting because it represents a mentality (of) those who support it, to exploit nature for self interest that has brought about the extinction of many species worldwide”…

Elephant numbers in Africa as a whole have fallen by more than two thirds since 1979, from 1.3 million to only 415,000 in 2015, according to HuffPost. In Botswana, however, the animals’ population has been on the rise, increasing from 80,000 in the late 1990s to 130,000 today, Reuters reported. The country now hosts nearly a third of Africa’s elephants… Botswana’s previous president Ian Khama instituted a ban on hunting elephants in 2014′.  SOURCE…

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