Wildlife

Botswana to hold elephant hunting auctions

Last updated on September 11th, 2021 at 03:04 pm

Botswana is to hold its first auctions for the right to hunt elephants since lifting a ban last year.

The country has some 130,000 elephants, the world’s largest population.

Authorities will issue seven hunting “packages” of 10 elephants each, confined to “controlled hunting areas”, a spokeswoman said.

The government revoked a 2014 ban in May, saying human-elephant conflict and the negative impact on livelihoods was increasing.

The lifting of the ban has been popular with many in local communities but criticised by conservationists.

Seven packages of 10 elephants each are on offer and the auction will take place in the capital Gaborone on Friday afternoon, the BBC’s Southern Africa correspondent Nomsa Maseko reports.

The bidders – who must be companies registered in Botswana – are expected to put down a refundable deposit of 200,000 pula ($18,000; £14,000).

The government has issued a quota for the killing of 272 elephants in 2020.

The hunting would help areas most impacted by “human wildlife conflict”, wildlife spokeswoman Alice Mmolawa told the AFP news agency.

Many rural communities believe a return to commercial hunting will help keep the elephant population away from their villages, and also bring in much-needed income in places not suitable for high-end tourism.

But critics fear it could also drive away luxury-safari goers opposed to hunting.

Audrey Delsink, Africa’s wildlife director for the global conservation lobby charity Humane Society International, called the auctions “deeply concerning and questionable”.

“Hunting is not an effective long-term human-elephant mitigation tool or population control method,” she told AFP.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi’s predecessor Ian Khama introduced the ban in 2014 to reverse a decline in the population of wild animals.

Albert Echetah

Recent Posts

South African Group Petitions For Chidimma Adetshina’s Removal FromInternational Miss Universe Pageant Over Identity Fraud Allegations

A group called Progressive Forces in South Africa has launched a petition against MissUniverse Nigeria Chidimma Adetshina, with the aim…

November 5, 2024

Mauritius Reopens Social MediaAccess in Response to PublicPressure

Mauritius on Saturday overruled its decision to prohibit social media until the election onNovember 10th which was caused by a…

November 5, 2024

UAE Crown Prince Arrives in Ethiopia for WorldWithout Hunger Conference

The UAE’s Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed AlNahyan was in Addis Ababa…

November 5, 2024

Zimbabwe’s rich (Mbingas) linked to state looting

Gilbert Machokoto, a former teacher, said that setting up a business in the late 1980s, shortlyafter Zimbabwe's independence, was ‘like…

November 4, 2024

Historic Shift in Botswana as PresidentConcedes to Opposition Victory

Following elections in which the party that had ruled the diamond-rich nation for almost 60years suffered a historic setback. Botswana's…

November 4, 2024

Lightning Strike at Uganda Refugee CampClaims 14 Lives, Including Children

A lightning strike at a refugee camp in Uganda kills 14 people including children with 34 othershospitalized. The incident happened…

November 4, 2024

This website uses cookies.