Government of Botswana Expresses Concern Over Campaigns Looking to Ban Hunting Trophy Imports

The Government of Botswana has issued a letter expressing concern over campaigns targeted at the Government of Germany and the European Parliament looking to ban the import of hunting trophies.

Botswana’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism issued a press release last Friday on this matter, stating the potential risks associated with the introduction of restrictions to the movement of hunting trophies.

This included reduced funding available for conservation initiatives and habitat protection, as well as an increase in incidents of human-wildlife conflict.

The letter was addressed to the German Minister of Environment, Steffie Lemke, and the European Parliament, where numerous campaigns have taken place in recent history advocating for the introduction of such bans; it should be noted that many trophies that would be affected by these restrictions originate from Africa.

Outlined in the statement was Botswana’s approach to wildlife management, particularly the integration of conservation through hunting activities:

“Botswana has accomplished much for conservation through hunting. Communities continue to generate considerable revenues through special elephant quotas.

During the 2021/22 hunting season, P27 million was raised and subsequently used to finance elephant conservation projects and livelihood-enhancement projects for communities in Botswana’s elephant range.”

With this in mind, Botswana states that it will continue to advocate its use of the Community Based Natural Resource Management (CBNRM) model, which gives ownership of wildlife resources to local stakeholders to generate benefits for their livelihoods and conservation.

As a next step, it is vital that policymakers in Germany and the European Parliament look to consult with the relevant stakeholders that would be affected by such campaigns before taking any further actions.