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Botswana President Announces End of Hunting As Hunting Leases Are Extended

(posted November 01, 2012)

President of Botswana Ian Khama has announced that no one will be allowed to hunt wildlife in Botswana come 2014. He made the statement during a recent visit to the Sankoyo and Mababe areas, where elephant/human conflicts have increased and where residents have historically voted for the opposition party. Khama promised the people there 100 percent compensation for damages to crops and property by elephant (versus the current 35 percent compensation) and the replacement of all cattle lost to lions and other predators. But his blanket statement that 2013 "will be the last time anyone is allowed to hunt in Botswana" took the hunting industry there somewhat by surprise. That's because seven concession holders have been granted a year's extension for multi-purpose use of their concessions, meaning photo safaris AND hunting will continue this coming year on leases that were expiring with this season.

In a statement issued by the Botswana Wildlife Management Association (BWMA), The Hunting Report learned that hunting leases were extended through 2013 in the following concessions:


CT1: Destination South Safaris, Jeff Rann (jeffrann@yahoo.com)
CT2: Johan Calitz Safaris, Johan Calitz (johan@calitzsafaris.com)
CT3: Chobe Fish Eagle, Duncan Britton (Duncan@chobesafarilodge.com)
NG 42: Nemesis Safaris, Johan Calitz (johan@calitzsafaris.com)
NG 43: Kgori Safaris, Jim Van Rensburg (hunt@kgorisafaris.com)
NG 47: Safaris Botswana Bound, Graeme Pollock (saf.bots@info.bw)
CH 12: Bottle Pan Safaris, Mike Murray (mike@murayranches.co.za)

Debbie Peake of the BWMA says the government has not given them any official statement about the closure of hunting for 2014, and in fact says the government has lead the BWMA to believe that limited hunting of elephant would continue as part of a population management plan.

For now what this means to traveling hunters is that if you have a Botswana elephant hunt booked for 2013, it must be on one of the above concessions or on NG41 where Johan Calitz Safaris has a lease through 2017. Check with the agent or operator handling your hunt arrangements. Otherwise, until the Botswana government officially announces other plans, all hunting on government concessions after 2013 is out of the question. For now it seems that hunting for other species on private ranches should be able to continue. We'll have more details and analysis on this development and what Botswana operators are doing in the upcoming December issue of The Hunting Report. - Barbara Crown, Editor

http://africanconservation.org...ns-hunting-from-2014


Botswana bans hunting from 2014

Conservation News



Wednesday, 31 October 2012 08:57





MAUN - No one will be allowed to hunt wildlife in Botswana, come 2014, President Lt Gen. Seretse Khama Ian Khama has announced.

He said wildlife numbers were decreasing at an alarming rate, hence the decision.

Next year will be the last time anyone is allowed to hunt in Botswana and we have realised that if we do not take care of our animals, we will have a huge problem in terms of tourism, President Khama told Sankoyo and Mababe residents last week.

The President also decried the rate at which poachers were killing elephants.

We have increased the number of soldiers and police officers that patrol our game parks. Yesterday our officers apprehended five people with 12 elephant tusks in the Chobe area. Two of them are Batswana and three are Zimbabweans, said President Khama.

He said government was aware of peoples complaint about damages caused by the elephants in their villages, especially in the farms.

There is someone who will come to this district next week, starting with Khwai village. That person will help you chase away elephants from your villages by using certain methods that he has been taught, he said.

He indicated that elephants were the main attraction of tourists to Botswana hence he could never allow for them to be killed. He also informed residents that compensation for damage done to farms by elephants would be 100 per cent instead of the current 35 per cent.

As for those who lose cattle because of lions and other predators, compensation will be cattle, he said.

President Khama indicated that compensation would be done after extensive investigations.

He also appealed to residents to help law enforcement officers in fighting poaching.

In South Africa, he said, poachers killed 440 rhinos last year and this year they had so far killed 450.

Earlier on, residents of Sankoyo had complained to President Khama about elephants that were damaging their crop fields and lions which killed their livestock.

They also pleaded with the President to extend the hunting season since elephants were too many in their village.

While in Mababe, President Khama told residents that if it was their wish to change the constituency, then the delimitation exercise had to be done accordingly.

He said Mababe was administered from North West District while politically it fell under the Chobe District.

He was answering a question from villagers who wanted to know whether Mababe fell under the North West or Chobe district.

Residents also wanted to know why Tawana Land Board had stopped allocating plots in Mababe.

For her part, the land board secretary, Ms Tlotlego Rampha informed residents that allocation of plots was still suspended because they were still awaiting a decision from government to convert some of its state land to tribal land.

We realised later that the land that we were giving to Batswana was state land hence we suspended it and still waiting for authorisation to convert some of the state land into tribal land, she said.

Ms Rampha assured residents that the land board would not confiscate the land that they had already allocated. BOPA

http://www.dailynews.gov.bw

Nice to know that, having met all challenges regarding jobs, infrastructure, education and health, the Botswana government has all the resources available to properly manage its wildlife and pay depredation damages while the rest of the world takes its hard currency elsewhere.

Having been in the Sankoyo in August 2012, let me tell you that poaching is rampant. We encountered poached animals every day, heard shots at night every night. Botswana leadership has the mistaken view that they will simply continue to build more and more sightseeing camps and that will suffice. Sankoyo itself would make an extremely poor sightseeing location. Also there are serious occupancy issues at the existing ecotourist camps even as more are planned. With the Jouberts lips firmly planted to the Presidents buttocks this was probabaly inevitable. Will it be permanent? Only a regime change would make it posssible. One other thought; ecocamps use only a tiny portion of the concessions and hunting could coexist quite nicely on the remainder. Apparently that matters not.

Jeff

Jeff,

Same thing when I was in Mababe. The area would be an extremely poor photo destinationn as you can't see anything from the roads except elephant backs. You see some game at the waterholes but it's halling ass soon as you pop out of the bush.

Calitz had a photo camp there (part of the deal to hunt the area) and they had a total of one party in there for the whole season.

Another crazy scheme brought forward by the lure of big profits at the expense of the common folks and the wildlife.

Mark

Another president who sucks.

Yup, all those "eco-tourists" eating and drinking all their fancy stuff, creating a garbage problem, defecating and urinating into the sand, seeping into the water table and into the Delta. Just think how pristine the place will be with no hunters, and fewer animals. Oh yeah!
I wonder what bullshit stories the Jouberts will have to tell now in order to sell their manipulated "nature in the raw" crap.

It will however probably give him a chance to divert more water from where it's meant to go & into the mines without anyone blowing the gaffe about the loss of water or pollution........ but surely he wouldn't do that would he?

Just Africa and Africans... whether in Botswana Chicago or the US White house It's always the same.

i'll bet the Blackbeard family of PH's who essentially raised "Sir Ian" are wishing they had left him to be raised by hyenas. he is just another "black" ( if you have ever seen his picture you would understand the quotation marks) politician who has forgotten his roots. he could give a shit less what happens to the average tribal member as long as he gets his share of the profits of Wilderness Safaris( largest ecotourism company in Bots and probably largest in southern Africa), of which he is a shareholder. another question- he states hunting will end in 2014 but what about the private game farms, primarily in the Tuli block?? is he going to stop that by Presidential degree also??? abuse of power seems to come easily to African politicians/dictators.

I met him once. He acts more like a haughty Englishman than an African.

This just applies to the government owned areas; correct? Private land can still be hunted I am assuming?

Somebody needs to try to get things moving in Angola.

Little Joe,

My understanding is that hunting will continue as normal on the private ranches.

Mark

Educated in Rhodesia and the UK...A Major in the british army before being recalled to take over the (completly out of hand) BDF.

Was a good man...but when I asked his younger brother (who was at school with me) about if his brother was gay the answer was....'You better belive it, it's by by dynasty...'

I have also heard that rumor of him being gay. I know he is unmarried and the time I met him he came off as very prissy and a little effeminate.

We can only hope that God and HIV will bring about a regime change before all the game is gone!

I'm banking on HIV in getting the job done. God seems to pick the wrong people.

How could he be gay? That's a crime in Botswana!!!

The outfitters in Caprivi offering basically the same elephant and buffalo are sitting pretty right now.

ain't that the truth. where i shot mine a few weeks ago was across the Chobe/Zambezi rivers from Chobe National Park in the Caprivi. elephants could be seen wandering back and forth across the rivers from Botswana, at least during the late season when both rivers are low. same gene pool, essentially the same elephants Khama has obviously made the decision that hunting has no place in the future tourism plans and could care less about the welfare of his own people( if course being a partner in Wilderness Safaris might have a bit to do with his plans).

.

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An Important Correction to Botswana EME Bulletin

(posted November 05, 2012)

In the Email Extra Bulletin I sent you on Thursday, November 1, (see Botswana President Announces End of Hunting As Hunting Leases Are Extended) I listed all the hunting concessions whose leases have been extended through 2013 but inadvertently omitted an area. Please note that CH 1/2, Chobe Enclave, is also open for hunting this coming season. It is operated by Butler & Holbrow Safaris. You can reach them at either peterholbrow@gmail.com or Kelly@gregbutlersafaris.com. I apologize for leaving them off my previous email and have added them to the posted bulletin. - Barbara Crown, Editor