Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi participated in the Ngamiland Farmers' Movement. Photo: X/@OfficialMasisi
Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi “deserves a medal” for threatening to send 20,000 elephants to Germany amid a dispute over the import of hunting trophies, an industry insider has said.
guardian It was recently reported that the German Environment Ministry had raised the possibility of tightening import restrictions on hunting trophies earlier this year due to concerns about poaching.
Mr Masisi told a German tabloid that banning the import of hunting trophies would only impoverish his people. built. He argued that conservation efforts have led to an explosion in elephant numbers and that hunting is an important means of controlling elephant numbers. Herds of elephants were causing property damage by eating crops and trampling residents.
South African Wildlife Farms CEO Richard Yorke praised Botswana's leaders.
“I think President Masisi should be given a medal for his attitude, because his attitude is justified. There are too many elephants, so what can we do?” York said.
Masisi said the elephants would be offered as a “gift” to Germany. “It's very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion on Botswana's issues,” he said. built. “We are paying a price to protect these animals for the world. As you want to tell us, Germans should coexist with them.”
Yorke said: “When you take part in conferences such as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, you bring together the European bloc with one vote. That's why countries like Luxembourg Don't bully them.'' , has as much say as South Africa. ”
He said decisions are being made based on emotion rather than the big picture of what to do.
Mr Yorke said there were “too many elephants” in southern Africa and elephants should be “used sustainably”.
“Why are people going hungry in South Africa and Africa when there are so many elephants? … We need to use the whole animal, not just the value we get from hunting. It should be delivered to the community as meat,” he said.
Mr York said the ban on trophy hunting was having a negative impact on the area. “We are against the ban because it is a case where our client cannot return the trophy to the playing field.” [United] state, he is much less likely to spend a fortune to come hunt that animal. And it's harmful in the long run. ”
There are approximately 130,000 elephants in Botswana alone, but if you take into account the Kavango-Zambezi border reserve shared by Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, the total number is “much higher, approximately 230,000.” he said.
But South African Animal Trafficking Prohibition Director Smaraguda Rowe said Masisi's comments were political and that the country could not afford to send so many elephants to Germany. “What they can do, and the way they make money, is to send thousands of elephant trophies around the world.
“Germany is not saying to Botswana, 'Don't kill the elephants.' They are saying, 'As an independent country, we will not accept your trophies,'” she said.
The ban on trophy hunting is having the desired effect, she said. “For example, there are a lot of countries that don't accept captive-bred and hunted lion trophies. It definitely has an impact, but it's really the morally right thing to do.
“Emotions are what make us human, and this is what we need to become compassionate human beings.”
Lu said there is enough research to show that elephants have emotions too. “They mourn the dead. They have very strong family ties and ties.” But “now we [are being told to] Remove emotion from everything. Yes, there are practicalities and we consider those as well, but that doesn't mean we have to completely exclude emotions. ”
She said there is poverty and humans have occupied the territories of wild animals and cut off their passage, making them unable to migrate to other areas, creating human-wildlife conflicts.
The answer lies in natural solutions to the elephant problem, including “opening passageways, doing what nature needs to do to redress the balance instead of killing elephants, and making money from elephants.” and hanging an elephant on the wall,” Lu said. I got it.
Ms Yorke said logic “must prevail” and compared rural residents to “Sandton housewives” who “don't mess with elephants”.
He said people living in rural areas were paying the highest costs. “To grow our wildlife economy, we have three core messages. First, we need to outperform other land use options. ”
If wild animals lose their value, he says, people will stop caring for them.
“Yes, if you hunt that one elephant, it will die, but you will be able to generate finances that will allow you to take care of the species and ensure the mobilization of more resources into its habitat.”
