Interesting and deplorable. Also, exactly what many of us predicted would happen when Khama put the hunting ban into effect.

Thanks for posting this Lane.

It is not new. Poachers were moving in as concessions were being vacated in 2012. You could hear gun shots all night.

Jeff

quote:

Originally posted by Bwana Bunduki:
It is not new. Poachers were moving in as concessions were being vacated in 2012. You could hear gun shots all night.

Jeff

Exactly! But it is getting bad enough that it is hard for the antis to cover up now.

Only answer is to open up ele and buffalo hunting as well as strenghten anti-poaching there..

I hunted ele in the Chobe (CH8) area of Botswana in 2010. We ran into patrols of the Botswana Defense Force several times. They seemed well supplied and professional. But, I don't know if their presence was a reaction to poaching (we saw no evidence) or the recent border incident with Mugabe's boys.

As a aside, there was a great population of Sable and the biggest buff I had ever seen, including Tanzania.

Poaching is at an all time high in Botswana with newspaper reports almost every week .

But you can be sure Dereck Jobbers, Ian Michele and company will play this down and continue to reap the financial rewards of the closure of hunting , bear in mind that the photographic industry is a very competitive industry with major global players , the Jouberts and Michlers use the anti hunting rhetoric as their major marketing tool in a field where they would normally have no unique selling quality., by the way they still have not made good with their promise to employ all the staff who would loose their jobs when hunting closed , the 10-15 hunting safari camps remained closed with no employment and very little anti poaching patrols by the private sector , and the Jouberts removed their promise of employment off the internet . They kind of remind me of the Clintons.

This weeks local newspaper (Ngamiland Times )ran the front page story how the District Councilors stopped the DWNP representative from presenting to them and chased them out and made some serious allegations of corruption and capture of the tourism industry by politicians, they have requested hunting be reinstated esp problem animals like elephant and buffalo that have caused great hardship for the people of the area.
They further stated that the removal of custodianship of the land from communities will increase poaching.
It is rumored that the Councilors may sue for the reopening of hunting .
It was predicted that the conflict avoiding BaTswana would eventually react , the affects of the ban now going on three years is now being felt across villages , farmers and the rural people of the North, BaTswana normally prefer to talk and resolve conflicts but I think they may have exhausted that avenue as more and more DWNP officers criticize the ban in the media feeding the flame.