Meaning that hunting should be opened again and at least 5.000 elephant hunting licenses issued each year for the next 10 years ?

Morten

Botswana the yo yo country. Yes no yes no yes no yes no yes and so on.

Ian Khama essentially owns Botswana and he isn't going to allow hunting....

3 of 61 legislators won't get their way on this one.

I wonder how much he is getting from the animal rights fanatics to ban hunting?

The word I hear is that it is more than 3 legislators. Several communities are raising holy hell over the loss of revenue, loss of meat and the damage the elephants are causing. Some think hunting will return but only after Khama steps down which should be in a year or so.

http://allafrica.com/stories/201503120149.html



From this March 11th article it does not seem like Botswana has any intention of lifting the hunting ban.



Botswana: Govt Doing Well in Anti-Poaching


By Kabo Keaketswe


Gaborone — Botswana is regarded as one of the countries in Africa with best models of anti-poaching.

Addressing the media on preparations for the upcoming Illegal Wildlife Trade Conference on March 25, the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Mr Tshekedi Khama said the country had the commitment to protecting its wildlife, particularly elephants because of the alarming rise of poaching.

He said there were aspects that contributed to effective anti-poaching such as political will, education and community buy in or getting people informed and involved in the topic. The minister noted that the elephant population in Botswana stood at about 140 000.

Mr Khama said the protection of the African elephant was a serious issue that needed concerted efforts as the populations were in decline. Meanwhile, Botswana will host the African Elephant Summit in March 23 in Kasasne, followed by the international conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade in March 25.

The previous conference, dubbed the London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade hosted by the United Kingdom in February 2014, was convened in response to the growing crisis in wildlife poaching in order to focus high level political attention on the issue, and also explore new ways to tackle the issue and ensure a more comprehensive approach.

During the 2013 African Elephant Summit, urgent measures which needed to be implemented to combat elephant poaching and trafficking of ivory were agreed on. Some of them included adopting a zero tolerance approach to elephant poaching and ivory trafficking and enhancing capacity of law enforcement and wildlife protection agencies.

Forming and supporting national interagency mechanisms to allow immediate action against anyone implicated in wildlife crime and improving monitoring of elephant populations, levels of killing and illegal trade were also the measures agreed. Other measures included engaging communities living with elephants as active partners in their conservation and implementing efficient measures to register and secure ivory stockpiles among others.

Source : BOPA

And in one year another 12.500 elephants have been born ?

http://allafrica.com/stories/201503190222.html


Botswana: Elephant-Human Conflict Need Redress

By Baleseng Batlotleng


Gaborone — The Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism has been asked to develop a strategy that will lessen elephant-human conflict, which now poses a grave threat to their continued existence.

Gaborone South MP, Mr Kagiso Molatlhegi suggested that as the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) was against the reduction of the elephant population, it would be best if the organisation instead purchased ivory and funds be used for some development projects.

Mr Molatlhegi said the minister must lead the way in educating about renewable energy. He said Botswana was set to benefit from carbon trade if it was given the urgency it deserved. Maun East MP, Mr Kostantinos Markus decried the non-functionality of trusts such as Khwai and Mababe which were once the economic backbones of the region.

He said the area around Mababe and Khwai was also inundated with a huge population of elephants. He said since hunting was not allowed in the area, elephant and human conflict exacerbated poor performances in the agriculture sector for farmers.

He said the Makalamabedi buffer zone was destroyed by elephants foraging for grazing fields. Gaborone Bonnington South MP, Mr Ndaba Gaolathe said conservation should be of a broad base approach and cover areas such as rivers, land and soil outside animals.

He said there should be a coordinated and aggressive infrastructure investment on issues of waste management. He advised the minister to explore feasible opportunities that the tourism sector could provide.

The legislator said government must provide sustainable employment opportunities for Batswana through other means not just the traditional tourism areas but also cities which are often not considered potential tourism areas.

He explained that mining towns like Jwaneng, Selebi Phikwe and Orapa can easily become mining tourism towns. Chobe MP Mr Ronald Shamukuni said the minister must speed up the envisaged Elephant Management Strategy and also despite the economic situation, hasten to compensate farmers on time.

He asked the minister to involve the Chobe District Council in the Kasane/ Kazungula facelift. Mr Shamukuni said an important component of the facelift was the relocation of the old Kasane community to Plateau.

He advised the minister to consult with the community before anything can take off. He suggested to the minister to consider selective hunting in Chobe and also develop a strategy that would see elephants generating income to farmers who had lost their livestock.

Minister of Defence, Justice and Security Mr Shaw Kgathi said government must start exploring the Eastern corridor of the country for tourism opportunities. He decried the growing number of the elephant population in the Bobirwa area largely due to Dikgatlhong and Thune Dams.

Mr Kgathi who is also MP for Bobirwa also wanted clarification on progress on the Shalimpo Transfrontiers from the date of signing of memorandum of understanding. He also pleaded with the minister to take care and establish as protected sites Mmakwa Hills in Mashatu.

Source : BOPA

Screw Botswana Govt. When the elephants have turned all the landscape to look like the moon surface and the Eco tourist stop coming to look at wipe out landscape then the govt may do something. I hope the elephants eat their way north, south, east and west. Stupid fucking govts.

http://www.theguardian.com/wor...ana-game-hunting-ban



Botswana

The Observer

Botswana seems to show the way ahead in conservation – but poaching is still on the rise
Landlocked nation’s success in banning commercial hunting has brought a host of unexpected consequences


Jeffrey Barbee


Saturday 21 March 2015 16.40 EDT Last modified on Saturday 21 March 2015 20.08 EDT


Set on the banks of the Chobe river, Letlekane looks out across where five countries – Zambia, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Botswana – come together. This town, where the latest wildlife trade talks will take place this week, is at the heart of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Park, an area bigger than Italy. It is the world’s biggest park, and Africa’s greatest hope of preserving its heritage.

Botswana appears to be leading the way in the battle to preserve the continent’s famous living treasury of animals. Tourism brought £227m into the economy last year. High-end camps attract visitors from around the world to appreciate nature that most people can see only on television. The president banned commercial hunting in 2014, and the country’s conservation projects are the envy of many.

Olmo von Meijenfeldt of Democracy Works, an NGO based in South Africa, has been touring these projects ahead of the conference. Sitting in a remote bush camp, he said: “Botswana appears to be on the cutting edge of conservation in southern Africa.”

According to Balule Nature Reserve warden Craig Spencer, communities turn to poaching and wildlife traffickers only when they are excluded from conservation solutions that might benefit them. In Botswana, new game management areas have been established to link parks through rural communities, which then can license rights to tour operators and benefit from tourism money directly.

At first glance the slaughter of elephants and rhinos that happens in neighbouring countries seems to have passed Botswana by. But this republic of just two million people, which scores highly on governance and transparency ratings, is not without its own troubles. As high-value species become harder to get, other animals are being targeted by poachers. The scaly pangolin, the giraffe and especially lions’ bones are being trafficked out of the country. At a special cross-border roadblock set up by South African police near the border with Botswana’s Kgalagadi National Park, police found both cheetahs and lions being trafficked for sale in South Africa.



Ogaliditse Ditwa, a wildlife officer, said: “There is a big problem with poaching in northern Botswana. At times the wildlife officers are sometimes fighting with the poachers.”

Poaching brings in big money to poor communities, and once the channels of sale are set up they are almost impossible to take down.

Julian Rademeyer, a South African journalist and author of an exposé of the global trafficking trade entitled Killing for Profit, said: “I don’t think we’re on top of it. I think it is going to get a lot worse before it gets better.”

Climate change is also taking a toll. Near Pandematenga in northern Botswana, the biggest migration of elephants left in Africa moves between Chobe National Park and Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe. Hunting camps used to provide water points for an entire generation of elephants that made the 450-mile trek. With these water sources drying up, local environmentalists worry that some of the 30,000-plus elephants will die. According to reserve managers, poaching of this last great herd is also on the increase.

Meanwhile large-scale, cattle-based agriculture with ties to the EU, the second biggest income earner in the country, has driven farmers to overgraze their farms and compete directly with lions and other wild animals that have previously had free range.

The hunting ban has also created potential problems. Hunting’s direct contribution to the economy is hard to establish, but millions of dollars flowed into the country for big-ticket hunting licences for elephant and buffalo.

Now that this money is not there, the jobs that depended on it have also gone, says Von Meijenfeldt. “One has to be cautionary with the ban on hunting, because the effect could be that poaching will increase. Communities might be forced through economic pressures to supplement the income that was lost through participating in the hunting industry.”

This week the conservationist world will come here for guidance on the future of the animal trade. They will take a trip down the Chobe river at sunset, when the birds fill the sky and the elephants rumble as they drink. But they will see no rhinos: they have already been poached.