“Try it yourself.” Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany

“It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion on Botswana affairs. We are paying a high price to preserve these animals here,” got upset with the president of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi, in an interview with the tabloid newspaper Bild. Masisi subsequently “offered” to the Germans to send them twenty thousand elephants to try what it’s like to live next to them.

The president did not spare such sharp statements after Berlin came up with an idea on how to limit the hunting of elephants even more. On the table is a proposal by the German Ministry of the Environment to introduce stricter limits on the import of hunting trophies. These are most often the head or skin of a captured animal, which the hunter brings to his home country.

While Berlin wants to fight poaching in southern Africa in this way, Botswana strongly rejects these initiatives.

Destroyers of the ecosystem

Land hunting in the south of Africa brings enormous sums to the state coffers every year. What’s more, it supposedly helps her regulate the numbers of these majestic animals. According to the Botswanan head of state, these are increasing by thousands every year and the situation has already gotten out of control.

“Their increase was caused by the plague!” he said Blame it napkins in the comments. About 130,000 elephants now live in Botswana, which represents an estimated third of the world’s elephant population.

The consequences of the alleged overpopulation were not long in coming. The animals are attacking people, trampling fields and eating crops, leading to starvation in Botswana, authorities say.

No other wild animal has killed as many people there as they have. Many farmers and villagers can no longer do without fences.

Angola, for example, received elephants from Botswana in the past, which promises an increase in tourism from the “gift”.

But the elephants also pose a problem for the local vegetation. “We are losing our floodplain forests, all the baobabs. It destroys the ecosystem and without it people and animals die,” explains conservationist Vincent Shacks, Wilderness Group Impact Manager. It is the largest safari operator in Botswana.

Eight thousand elephants to Angola

The South African country banned trophy hunting in 2014, but lifted the restrictions five years later under pressure from local communities. It now issues annual hunting quotas. You they represent an important source of income for local residents and at the same time help to keep animal numbers under control, according to local authorities. And it is precisely the approval of the German restriction of the proposal that could cost Botswana dearly.

The Federal Republic is according to news Humane Society International as of 2021 the largest importer of African elephant trophies and hunting trophies in the European Union overall. The representatives of Botswana reacted to the discussion in London last month with the same irritation as in the case of Berlin.

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In March, British MPs voted to support a ban on the import of hunting trophies, but the legislation has not yet entered into force. On that account Botswana’s wildlife minister, Dumezweni Mthimkhulu, threatened to send 10,000 elephants to London’s Hyde Park to give Britons a taste of life alongside the animals.

In the past, Botswana also “offered” elephants to Mozambique or Angola. As he writes server CBS News, Angola has already received eight thousand elephants this way. They are supposed to relieve not only Botswana, but also boost tourism in Angola.

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