Botswana may put elephants in cross-hairs as it moves to lift hunting ban

Yahoo! ^ | 07/15/18

[Simon Green]

Botswana, home to the world's largest elephant population, may lift a ban on hunting for sport in the face of what the government says is growing conflict between humans and wildlife, a move sure to provoke protest from animal welfare groups.

Conservationists estimate the land-locked southern African country to have around 130,000 elephants, close to a third of the continent's population, but the government says the number is closer to 230,000, causing problems for small-scale farmers.

"Communities have become very hostile and negative towards wildlife," said Konstantinos Markus, a member of parliament from the wildlife-rich northwestern part of Botswana.

He said crop raiding by elephants in the Chobe district in the north had reduced yields of the staple maize crop by as much 72 percent.

"This harvest loss leaves the community with fewer options to take care of their households while perceptions of local communities towards wildlife conservation have changed since the hunting ban," he told Reuters.

Botswana's parliament passed a motion on June 21 to review and reconsider the ban, which was imposed by former president Ian Khama in 2014 after surveys showed declining wildlife populations in the north.

The new president Mokgweetsi Masisi has signaled his support and public hearings will also take place on the issue.

France-sized Botswana has only has around 2.3 million people and the mostly arid country has vast tracts of remote wilderness which also make it a magnet for foreign tourists who want to view wildlife.

Mike Chase, a scientist with Elephants Without Borders, a conservation organisation, said bringing back trophy hunting would have little impact on the elephant population or crop destruction by the pachyderms.

[marktwain]

Good for Botswana.

This is the proven way to protect wildlife populations.

Make them a valuable, renewable, resource that brings money into the communities affected.

When they have an ownership share in the elephants, they can afford to absorb some damage.

[Stevenc131]

Contrary to the propaganda in the West, elephants can be mean and very aggressive. The natives over there don’t have any means of defending themselves and they aren’t in love with elephants. I saw a segment on TV about 10 years ago where a tribal leader was lambasting an animal rights person, calling her a ‘white colonialist’ who didn’t know anything about native life in Africa and who cared more about elephants than people.

[rktman]

So, has 'peta' chosen to buy some elephant suits and infiltrate the herds in protest? 🐘😂

[hanamizu]

If you want to get an idea of what Botswana looks like, the “Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency” an HBO series is now on YouTube. Lots of it was filmed in the bush.

[BluH2o]

My wife and I were guests at a couple of Botswana's highly rated game lodges a few years back. We are well traveled and this was one of our most interesting trips with out question.
Daily tours from the camps out into the Okavango Delta were rich with animal sightings. Saw all of the big five (as they are known in that part of the world) lions, leopards, the Cape Buffalo, rhino's and, of course, elephants. Close enough to see the interaction among elephants in their herd. A very large male elephant, who range independently, was hanging out in close proximity to our safari camp. Magnificent animal.

[Safetgiver]

Lots of it was filmed in the bush.....Yeah, but what does Botswana look like?

[To-Whose-Benefit?]

If it pays it stays.

Game licenses pay for game cops.

No money for game cops, no game cops and the entire population is poached out of existence.

[Zhang Fei]

[If it pays it stays.

Game licenses pay for game cops.

No money for game cops, no game cops and the entire population is poached out of existence.]

---

While Botswana is roughly the size of TX, 70% of it is desert. Using the remaining land for a forest reserve seems a little excessive. Botswanans should propose to conservationists that they sell them as many live elephants as they want, based on a price of $1 per pound of large and dangerous wildlife. That way these conservationists can establish forest reserves in their home countries to keep these species in the numbers to which they would like to become accustomed. Even with expensive safaris, I can’t imagine that a forest reserve is a more profitable use of land than either agriculture or light manufacturing.

[M.K. Borders]

It has been my uninformed opinion for years now that folks who want to preserve elephants are doing them the most harm.

The solution up to now has been the destruction of the ivory trade. Governments of Africa routinely burn huge piles of ivory tusks in order to take them off market but in reality they only raise the value of the unseized tusks.

Fact is the price of ivory has gotten so high on the black market that a poor African farmer cannot afford not to poach elephants.

Want to decrease the pressure on the elephant herds? Dump all that seized ivory on the world market all at once and drive the price down to the point it no longer pays to poach.

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[To-Whose-Benefit?]

30 years ago Botswana was prime Safari Country. Agriculture and light Industry?

When you’re looking at $100,000 to legally hunt 1 elephant there’s no way agriculture or light industry can put that much into the country’s economy.

What’s the kill ratio?

1 out of every 1100 elephants.

If we’re going to preserve African Wildlife we can’t do it crowding a few onto comparatively small game reserves.

Safari IS the right Industry for Botswana. It works.

They have, or had, ample game populations and space for them.

If you get caught in the bush without proper licenses, well, you’re quite likely to become food for the African Sanitary Corps. From the Hyeanas on down through the birds to the ants.

[snarkytart]

Natives are pretty mean and aggressive too. Elephants are worth preserving as prehistoric mammals, and I don’t think anyone is under the impression that a wild big mammal is sweet and nice.

[SoFloFreeper]

Trophy Hunting Can Help African Conservation, Study Says

Get this and cut and paste it before National Geographic scrubs it from their site. It shows how the left is wrong about hunting.