Botswana hunting revenues almost double to Ksh.517.8M amid UK opposition

Communities living in wildlife areas protest in front of the British High Commission in Gaborone, March 12, 2025. (Mqondisi Dube for VOA)
Botswana has made $4 million
(Ksh.517.8 million) from the sale of licenses to hunt wild animals, the highest
figure since lifting a hunting ban in 2019.
The hunting season, which ended
in November, was held amid growing opposition from some European countries that
want a ban on the importation of African wildlife trophies.
Botswana issues around 400
elephant licenses annually, with most purchased by overseas hunters.
Wynter Mmolotsi, minister of
environment and tourism, told Parliament Thursday that millions of dollars were
generated through the sale of mostly elephant licenses in villages in wildlife
areas.
"In order to manage the
wildlife population, the country is implementing a combination of both
consumptive and nonconsumptive utilization of our wildlife resources to derive
optimum economic benefit, particularly for our communities," he said.
"For the 2024 hunting
season, the community quotas generated the sum of 42,863,423 pulas. Further, a
total of 15,633,950 pulas was realized from the sale of special elephant quotas
to support elephant conservation and community-led projects within the elephant
range."
In 2023, Botswana earned $2.7
million (Ksh.349.5 million) from hunting licenses.
Mmolotsi, however, says the hunts
face increasing Western opposition. Canada and Belgium are among countries that
have recently banned importation of wildlife trophies.
"The country is facing
opposition from animal rights organizations to our policy of sustainable
wildlife utilization of using hunting as a tool and empowerment to our local
communities. The ministry, working with the hunting industry and affected
community trusts stepped up efforts to counter this growing opposition to
sustainable hunting through engagements carried out in the U.K. and
Germany," he said.
Siyoka Simasiku, director at the
conservation coalition, Ngamiland Council of Non-Governmental Organisations
says communities will be the hardest hit if the U.K. imposes restrictions. He
has been to Europe to campaign against trophy import bans.
"The U.K. ban is going to be
bad on community benefits as the U.K. is an economic superpower and might
influence other countries to actually follow suit and then communities might
lose the market that already exists as more hunters will not be coming to
Botswana to hunt in community concessions due to the trophy bans," he
said.
Oaitse Nawa of the Elephant
Protection Society is among those who want the hunts to be stopped. He also
argues, revenue accrued from hunting does not significantly benefit Botswanans.
"They are giving us figures
of the money that they made from hunting, but also let us look at the
compensation that they give the people. And also the result of hunting, what
does hunting bring to the local people because the animals that experience
hunting, They tend to change their behavior and kill people. That is why
we are saying there should be proper research in that regard,” said Nawa.
Botswana, with the world’s
largest elephant herd at more than 130,000 elephants has recorded an increase
in human fatalities, while crops are damaged.
Want to send us a story? SMS to 25170 or WhatsApp 0743570000 or Submit on Citizen Digital or email wananchi@royalmedia.co.ke
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a Comment