“It’s not a joke,” President Mokgweetsi Masisi told the newspaper on Tuesday Bild. He is annoyed by the plans of the German Environment Ministry. “It is very easy to get an opinion from Berlin about how things are done in Botswana. But we pay the price to protect the elephant. The Germans themselves should try to live with elephants, as they say we should.”
Botswana is home to the largest number of African elephants in the world: more than 130,000 individuals, a third of the world’s elephant population. Numbers increased after hunting was banned in 2014. Conflicts between people and animals are therefore on the rise: sealskin, confined to overcrowded zoos, eat more and more agricultural crops and sometimes attack people.
At the insistence of local communities, Botswana decided to restrict hunting again in 2019, angering international conservationists. Since then, wealthy Western tourists have been allowed to shoot a quota of elephants and take away hunting trophies (such as taxidermy heads) every year for a fee. Botswana uses this to partially fund its wildlife parks. The income also benefits the population.
Ivory poaching
However, according to the German Environment Ministry, elephant trophy hunting encourages illegal ivory poaching. It therefore wants to limit the import of hunting trophies, following the example of countries such as Australia, France and the Netherlands (since 2016). Germany wants to extend the tightening of import rules within the European Union to other protected species, such as lions, giraffes and buffaloes.
According to Human Society International’s 2021 report, Germany is the EU’s largest importer of hunting trophies. In light of the “alarming decline in biodiversity,” the country therefore has a “special responsibility” to make the import of hunting souvenirs as sustainable as possible, a spokeswoman for Germany’s environment ministry explained to French news agency AFP on Tuesday.
Other gifts
President Masisi insists that he would like to give 20,000 elephants to Germany as a gift. He said he “will not take no for an answer.” Botswana previously gave 8,000 elephants to neighboring Angola. Mozambique was also offered 500. Last month, Botswana threatened to send 10,000 elephants to the UK, which is also considering a ban on hunting trophies.
Germany’s environment ministry said Botswana had yet to make official contact about Masisi’s “gift” or Botswana’s concerns about Germany’s criticism of trophy hunting.