https://www.theeastafrican.co....94-5cmi56/index.html



Botswana closer to lifting ban on elephant hunting
FRIDAY FEBRUARY 22 2019


In Summary

A cabinet committee has presented its recommendations to lift the ban to President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
Botswana imposed the ban in January 2014 with the government then arguing it was a necessary measure to protect wildlife population.
Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population with over 130,000 of the pachyderms, according to the Great Elephant Census.


By PETER DUBE


Botswana is considering lifting a ban on elephant hunting to curb human-wildlife conflict from increased population.

A Cabinet committee, led by the Minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Francs van der Westhuizen, on Thursday presented its recommendations to President Mokgweetsi Masisi calling for the “lifting of the ban, the development of a legal framework that will create an enabling environment of the safari hunting industry, as well as managing the elephant population within its historic range.”

It also proposed regular but limited culling of elephants “...and (the) establishment of elephant meat canning, including production of pet food and processing into other products.”

Botswana imposed the ban in January 2014 during President Ian Khama's tenure with the government then arguing it was a necessary measure to protect wildlife population.

The decision sparked a public outcry among communities dependent on income from trophy hunting licences.

However, in June last year, President Masisi appointed a committee to review the prohibition, promising to take the recommendations into consideration.

Communities bordering parks and sanctuaries have in the recent past complained about wildlife encroaching their villages.

“If need be, we will give an opportunity to parliament to also interrogate it and allow them space to intervene, before we make a final determination,” President Masisi said on Thursday after receiving the report.

Botswana is likely to face criticism from animal-rights activists and conservationists should it lift the ban on big-game hunting.

Elephants Without Borders (EWB) argues that elephant population is decreasing across Africa and the lifting of the ban could dent Botswana’s tourism.

The country has the world’s largest elephant population with over 130,000 of the pachyderms, according to the Great Elephant Census.

Last year, the Masisi’s administration came under fire after the media reported that nearly 100 elephants had been killed for ivory following a decision to disarm rangers.

But the government refuted the reports and organised a media tour to the affected areas.

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

He is and always was a nutcase...its futile to debate anything with people like him..

Even if Botsw. was completely deforested by ele a fanatic like him would denie it..

The ban on ele will be lifted within 2019..the political pressure from the rural areas is massive..

quote:

Originally posted by Pondoro:

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

He is and always was a nutcase...its futile to debate anything with people like him..

Even if Botsw. was completely deforested by ele a fanatic like him would denie it..

The ban on ele will be lifted within 2019..the political pressure from the rural areas is massive..

Agreed on all accounts!

It's imminent .. and a good thing too as the walls are closing in on hunting in some other countries ..

.

Was on the ticker of BBC World Service, yesterday as well. Seemed to be early stages and not negative.


.

In the shamefully immortal words of the worst liar ever in politics (other than his wife):

“Mistakes were made.”

There is nothing harder for a politician to admit than his own or his party’s mistakes.

Not much interested in elephant, but I certainly regret not hunting buff there when I had the chance.

Hopeful that they'll correct their mistakes.

Once Ellie hunting resumes, buff can’t be far behind.

BH63

On Good Morning America yesterday the ticker stated that elephant hunting is going to resume and the meat would be canned for use a pet food. That is partially true but a LOT of it will go to feeding a protein hungry population! Typical misinformation....

https://allafrica.com/stories/201903040039.html



Botswana: Elephants Bleed Govt Coffers

By Anastacia Sibanda


Gaborone — Government is indirectly subsidising and financing Botswana's elephant population and inadvertently the harm and damage caused by the species, President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi has said.

Briefing the media on Friday, President Masisi said elephants damaged food produced in the fields and therefore undermined government investment in the form of heavy agricultural subsidies.

He pointed out that Botswana's elephant population was estimated at 130 000 against the 2011 Elephant Management Survey having estimated the country's carrying capacity at 54 000.

With more than 70 per cent of the elephant population outside designated parks and game reserves, the President said human beings would always be the losers, adding that there was no doubt that elephants destroyed fields, crops and undermined human economic activities.

"Seventy per cent is a lot of elephants. It translates into 80 000 elephants that are outside (designated areas) and the closest they got to human settlement was in Phakalane, one was eliminated there," he said.

Explaining that there was never a hunting ban but a suspension extended every year, President Masisi said government took the decision to consult the nation on the matter, so that solutions could be owned by all.



During the consultation process, he said, people expressed the importance they attached to elephants because Batswana valued their flora and fauna.

"It bamboozles me when people sit in the comfort of where they come from and lecture us about the management of species they don't have. They want to admire from a distance and in their admiration of those species, they forget that we too, the people of Botswana, are a species, they talk as if we are trees and the grass that elephants eat," he said.

On other issues, President Masisi said the media formed an integral part of the country's democracy and pledged to continue engaging them.

He said government never imposed an advertising ban on private media, but only applied a belt tightening measure.

The belt, he said, was now loosening with the improvement of the economy.

To further strengthen relations with the media, President Masisi promised to include the private press on his international trips in the coming financial year.

Source : BOPA

http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?...44&dir=2019/march/01



A hunter responds to Joubert

Derek Joubert’s opinion piece of what he wishes to be referred to as the 'Blood law', the white paper that has been submitted to the Botswana government recommending wildlife utilisation in a series of suggestions, is once again the emotional attack on anything that might aid many of Botswana’s communities and the less fortunate people than his ‘guests and friends’ of Great Plains Conservation.

By CORRESPONDENT Fri 01 Mar 2019, 11:54 am (GMT +2)


It might also come to the aid of many species that are dwindling in Botswana due to massive elephant pressure on habitat in a country that does not exactly boast vast tracts of suitable elephant habitat.

l ‘The opening up of the largely condemned hunting of elephants and all wildlife again’

Largely condemned by whom? Those that do not have a dog in the fight, those that are privileged to go to bed each night with a full stomach, those that do not live amongst the ravages of wildlife conflict, those that do not rely on funding from such hunting, responsibly done? If the wildlife that inhabits the riverine along the Chobe had a voice, what would they say to the utter destruction and devastation of their habitat brought on by over populated elephant numbers? This should be enough to convince the world that something needs to be done and that elephants are not the be all and end all of African wildlife species of both fauna and flora.

It is a fact that most of the communities that benefited from hunting whilst it was permitted have suffered hugely due to the lack of what it brought to their lives, employment and finances, they have been spoken to and their voice has been heard in the ‘white paper’. Oh and contrary to the recent comment of feeding communities ‘rotting elephant carcasses’ I have to admit that due to the number of elephant carcasses often taken to the communities, some meat does spoil! So let us fix that problem and utilise more carefully that precious protein that is so desperately sought after by many underprivileged people in Botswana. Hunting quotas are a very small number in the context of elephant populations, which are estimated to be in excess of 150,000 animals. If for the sake of argument one can say that 50% of these are bulls and only 10% of these are bulls that can be hunted with regard to age and the quota is around the 300 mark, this is four percent of that bull population or 0.2 percent of the entire Botswana herd, which is said to increase by five percent per annum or for us layman an increase of 7,500 elephant per annum, hunting 300 bulls can never be regarded as culling nor will it ever be detrimental to elephant populations in Botswana. However, it can and does benefit poorer communities in the financial sense and employment of individuals.

By opening up the hunting concessions that once were, those that are in marginal game areas, especially in the North East of the country, it will spread the ‘load’ so to speak of elephant populations. Those areas are currently seasonal and once they dry out elephants move to the Chobe River area and the devastation beggars belief. Opening hunting concessions must accompany responsible habitat management and the inclusion of boreholes, which produce good water that holds elephant in such areas for long periods during the dry times, it prevents them from having to move to natural water such as the Chobe River and the Okvango Delta, both at immense risk of habitat destruction through elephant numbers, a fact that no one can deny!

Dr Erik Verreynne wrote an excellent piece in Africa Geo in September 2018. It summed up all in regard to hunting and its lack of detriment and the good that it can do if carried out responsibly.

l ‘The culling of massive numbers of elephant’

No one likes the idea of culling huge numbers of elephant and in a sense Botswana is beyond the point of no return with regard to that idea. How does one ever cull even the five percent increase per annum that the herd is supposed to increase by, even to hold a static population of roughly 150,000 it would mean culling the five percent increase (7,500 per annum).

Can one get one’s head around that sort of figure, I doubt it and this has been created by the selfsame people that have fought against the culling of elephants over the years, the Kruger National Park in South Africa will face the same predicament should they not start a culling programme in the very near future that area is still manageable. Let us not be having the same discussion in 15 years’ time!

It is all good and well to think that there is so much of Africa bordering these high elephant density areas, but the idea that as the herds increase they migrate into Angola, Namibia, Mozambique and Zimbabwe is fraught with falsehoods! Not through hunting have the numbers of elephants been decimated in many of these bordering countries, but through wars! If one takes the time span since these wars finally ended, not one has reached the time span of a sub adult elephant. Many thousands of elephants lived through these wars and they were exploited to the full, in the acquisition of ivory to fund much of what transpired in those days!

Do they forget? No they do not! I have witnessed this first hand on many occasions. They stay where their sanctity is secure and who can blame them? So it will take many, many years for a trust to build where they feel safe and Aunts will teach their offspring to migrate into new or territory that is now safe! We do not have that sort of time available!

Meanwhile Rome burns, for the fragile wildlife habitats like that of the Chobe and the Okavango bare the brunt of a natural onslaught that will in the not too distant future, destroy that which we hold so dear and is so vital to our wildlife heritage, habitat!

So if not to cull, what is the answer? If we say no to this action, what do we say yes to? Public opinion must not dictate this answer, for public opinion is emotional and not objective! We need decisions that are objective made at the highest level for the most important decision ever made on the future of Botswana’s wildlife jewel!

l Should a cull take place in the name of all I have mentioned, why should the meat not be responsibly utilised? Why should it not be canned and sold. Not into pet food but into a wholesome meal such as was the case with many cans of stew we used to purchase in the Kruger National Park rest camps. A canned stew made from the elephant and buffalo that were annually culled in the KNP. A delicious healthy option to the vast array of lesser pure meats canned for daily human consumption.

Thousands of souls in Africa crying out for protein and yet we wish to bury this sustainable product borne through necessity, for that is what it is currently.

Do we honestly view these elephants as untouchable? Do our larger wildlife populations and we give them ‘godlike’ status or do we manage them in a sensible manner in the hope that one day a balance will be struck and that we will no longer need to cull.

l The fences I wholeheartedly agree with Derek’s comment. It is a vile manner in trying to cut off migration routes et al, I have personally witnessed the damage those very fences that were erected in Botswana years ago created and it is a blight on their conservation ethic! Protecting communities from wildlife conflict is a far cry from fencing off wildlife routes and migratory patterns. This must be fought against, with vigour!

l As per D.

I will not ask for a global outcry to this response, merely reading it and thinking a little about what I have said will be sufficient. We can feed emotion and we can feed much of what is not objective, but what we cannot feed is the ability in 30 years’ time to reverse the problem with elephant numbers that by then will have ensured the absolute demise of both the Chobe River riverine habitat and all wildlife that relies on it and the Okavango Delta, one of the most incredible wildlife sanctuaries on the planet.

At that point those that supported the naming of a law meant to save our wildlife and fought against having it responsibly enacted, well, the only blood left to discuss will be that on your hands!

*Paul Stones is a professional hunter

https://www.mahohboh.org/tga-a...-botswana-president/

The CEO of the True Green Alliance in South Africa, Ron Thomson – a veteran African game warden and elephant management expert – applauds the new Botswana President – His Excellency Mokgweetse Masisi – for the wisdom and the insight he has shown towards the wildlife management needs of Botswana’s national parks; of Botswana’s grossly excessive elephant population; and of Botswana’s rural people.
Wildlife is a WILD “product of the land” – just as cattle sheep and goats are TAME “products of the land” – and they should BOTH be used wisely and sustainably for the benefit of Botswana’s rural people.
What Masisi has indicated is that he understands the need to create an ecological balance between the country’s soils, its plants and its wild animals, in the interests of the country’s biological diversity – a balance that has been sadly lacking for the past 60 years.
First World animal rightist NGOs – who have no accountability for what they demand of Africa – have been pestering Botswana to abandon its ideas of resurrecting elephant hunting as a wildlife management tool in Botswana; and, in support of these NGO’s demands, they have been fabricating all sorts of lies about Masisi – and praising the country’s recently retired president Ian Khama – in order to gain public support.
Thomson urges the SADC countries not to listen to these NGO rantings because, he says, their designs are merely to continue making hundreds of millions of US dollars annually out of their propaganda. In fact, it was Ian Khama – and his compliance with the demands of his animal rightist friends –that got Botswana into the mess it is in at the moment; and it is Masisi’s design to rectify all Khama’s wildlife management wrongs.
Masisi is exactly on the right track to restore health and vigour into Botswana’s ailing wildlife management scenario. And Ian Khama needs to fade into the background as all retiring politicians should have the gumption and the grace to do.
Thomson goes further:
Botswana is currently carrying between 10 and 20 times too many elephants and, over the last 60 years, they have been trashing the Botswana game habitats; and causing massive biological diversity losses. The damage already done is so great that it needs an act of Draconian magnitude to put the country back on track.
What Masisi is planning to do is exactly that: an act of Draconian magnitude. So, the countries of SADC should learn a lesson from this wise, fearless and dynamic national leader and take their cue from him; rather than from the Western NGOs – who are making demands in order to keep themselves on the animal rights gravy train.
The animal rights NGOs make money out of telling emotional wildlife-related lies to the general public; and they are racketeers – because they keep using the same lies to make more and more money out the gullible public; and THAT makes them, collectively, part of international organised crime (Ref. The American RICO Act – Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organisation Act). The public, therefore, is cautions to think VERY carefully about donating their hard-earned pennies to these people.
He advises: Look up the American RICO Act and make yourself conversant with the legal implications of NGOs “making money out of a gullible public by telling emotion-charge lies about the realities of wildlife management issues”.
During the three years leading up to CoP17 in Johannesburg in 2016, the animal rightist NGOs – on masse – were telling the world that the African elephant was facing extinction – and they solicited hundreds of millions of US dollars out of the public over this period.
This money, they said, they would ‘use’ to save the elephant from this ignoble fate (extinction). Now that we all know that this is a lie – that the elephant is NOT facing extinction – indeed the numbers of elephants living in the collective national parks of southern Africa actually (probably) number in excess of 300 000 (and their numbers are still expanding) – don’t let the animal rightists dupe you (again) when they demand that we should not kill an elephant – not even one – and, the NGOs say, the elephants will control their own expanding numbers themselves.
They must make up their mind what they want the public to believe – that the elephant is declining and facing extinction… or that the elephant populations are expanding but that they will (through some magic in the air) control their own numbers.

They are lying again because they have been hung by their own petard. Nevertheless, they have a new plan of action to make money out of the gullible public… only, this time, the public is starting to understand how they have had the wool pulled over the eyes. Public resistance to animal rights duplicity is growing daily.
If the public want to know WHAT is going on with regard to the elephants in Botswana, they should watch and listen to the prescriptions being put out by Mokgweetse Masisi. He is on the right track.
And if the SADC countries wish to bring common sense back into the wildlife management equation in their own countries, they should watch and see what Masisi is going to do.
Don’t listen to the animal rightist NGOs. And don’t listen to the United Nations organisations – CITES. CITES has been captured by the Western animal rights NGOs. CITES has changed from being an organisation designed to REGULATE the wildlife trade, into one that PROHIBITS the wildlife trade. And, when you try to evaluate the purpose of CITES ask yourself this question: “What good thing had CITES ever done for Africa?” The answer is NOTHING; and that state of affairs is not likely to change. So, the best thing that could ever happen to the world – and to Africa – is that CITES should be rendered, itself, extinct.
In my opinion, SADC should form a new wildlife trade block with the countries of the Far East – where the country’s of SADC can legally sell their legal acquired wildlife products. Eswatini, South Africa and Namibia would greatly benefit from being able to sell their legally procured rhino horn into a transparent Far Eastern rhino horn market. South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe would benefit from being able to sell their legally acquired ivory into an equally transparent Chinese ivory market. I plead with the SADC countries to extricate southern Africa from the stranglehold that CITES has on the marketing of these countries’ legally acquired wildlife products. And the only reason CITES has been corrupted is because the accredited animal rightists at CITES now rule the roost at the convention.
“The countries of the SADC region need” Thomson says, “to regain their sovereign rights to practice wildlife management in the manner that they see fit”.

They need to publicly discredit Derek Joubert and shut him up.

Expose his failures. His crony politics needs to be exposed.