The Sunday News
Nqobile Bhebhe in Gaborone, Botswana
THE Botswana government is reaching out to neighbouring countries to help amplify its call in fighting against the United Kingdom’s relentless quest in pushing for the ban on trophy hunting which will have undesirable effects on their economy, a top Government official has said.
British legislators in the House of Commons are this month set to debate a Bill designed to close out trophy hunting imports in that country.
Trophy hunting is defined as a practice of killing large animals such as elephants, lions and tigers for sport.
Hunters often keep the heads or other parts of the animals for display.
After the defeat of a similar effort at the House of Lords last year, Labour’s John Spellar has launched a Private Members Bill to ban hunting trophies.
If passed, the move will essentially prevent British hunters from importing the body parts of lions, elephants and giraffes – the animals that fetch significant foreign currency revenue, Zimbabwe included.
Botswana has earned millions of dollars by allowing trophy hunters to shoot and kill a limited number of elephants and other animals each year.
The country has the world’s largest elephant population at more than 130 000.
Botswana is of the view that wildlife has direct economic value to locals and beyond the non-consumptive tourism value chain.
Therefore, if the Bill goes on to become law, it has a significant negative effect on substantially foreign currency inflows and leave rural communities worse off.
Wildlife conservation and habitat conservation will also suffer.
It is against this background that Botswana has roped its neighbours to collectively withstand the Bill.
Briefing journalists drawn from Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa here in Gaborone on Wednesday evening, a top government official said Botswana is facing a relentless onslaught from Britain which could negatively affect its economy.
“This is an attack, an onslaught by people whom we share very little with. When they target our tourism, they target our livelihood. We now turn to our brothers (in the region) to say, there is this Bill coming before the UK parliament whose import essentially is to ban the importation of animals. This will negatively affect our economy.
“Our communities have taken good care of our animals so that our animals can take good care of us, how do we have people who have killed all their animals detect to us on how best to take care of our animals ?” he asked.
“We have been crying in our own corner saying this is not right. But we want to go far and we have turned to our brothers in the region to amplify our voice” he added.
During the duration of the media tour, journalists are set to interact with Botswana’s tourism officials, affected communities in Maun, hunting associations and other hunting players, and experts in community resource management.
Journalists were told that Botswana is planning to dispatch a parliamentary delegation to the UK to lobby for support from their British counterparts.
In 2019, Botswana’s government scrapped the ban on elephant hunting, shrugging off criticism from some environmental groups and conservationists.
The governments of Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia strongly assert that well-managed hunting can help preserve the herds by channeling profits into conservation, and protect ecosystems from the destructive power of large elephant populations.
The United States has also been drafting similar legislation to ban the importation of endangered species to strengthen countries’ conservation efforts.
