MMOLOTSI DIGS HEELS ON ALLOCATION OF 23 ELEPHANTS FOR INDEPENDENCE CELEBRATIONS WHILE DISHO CASTIGATES THE DECISION

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Oshinka Tsiang

The Minister of Environment and Tourism, Wynter Mmolotsi, has doubled down on his decision to allocate 23 elephants to various communities for meat during the recently held sixtieth-anniversary independence celebrations. The decision has drawn widespread criticism from international animal rights activists.

In a statement released on Monday, Mmolotsi said national programs that allow communities to benefit from wildlife meat as a form of benefit sharing should not be misinterpreted as elephant elimination programs. He said the goal is to maintain healthy wildlife populations while protecting human lives, livelihoods and wildlife. Mmolotsi highlighted Botswana’s internationally acclaimed conservation success, which has yielded the world’s largest number of elephants at more than 140,000. But such success, he said, has come at the expense of challenges such as human-wildlife conflict that has resulted in deaths, widespread injuries, crop destruction, livestock losses, and destruction of boreholes, which has impacted communities. He said elephants, while majestic, have contributed significantly to the damage.” Our goal is to proactively prevent tragedies while using science-backed, legal tools, such as sustainable, regulated hunting, to create jobs, generate revenue, and support community development.” The Minister said, adding that “communities should receive direct benefits from wildlife, as long as it's lawful and sustainable.”

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Wildlife, Tourism, Natural Resources and Climate Change, Gaobotswe Disho, has also criticised the decision by the government to allocate twenty-three elephants for meat during the recent sixtieth anniversary of independence celebrations. Disho, who’s also Member of Parliament for Okavango East, described the decision as not necessary because already 430 elephants have been allocated under CITES quotas, which should have been harvested efficiently without having to add another 23 for independence celebrations. Speaking to Tuesday Grill, Disho said that while he is not against the hunting of elephants, he is concerned about the seeming waste of resources because the number of elephants already allocated under the hunting quota system and an additional discretionary allocation under the agricultural system would be enough to provide sufficient meat for independence celebrations across Botswana. Disho said a lot of elephant meat goes to waste when some communities cannot consume it all. “The numbers that are issued every year to be killed, I think it’s enough. Let’s extract meat from them and prepare them for independence, for Christmas or for other occasions happening in the country.” Disho concluded.

Minister Mmolotsi authorised communities across Botswana to hunt a total of 23 elephants, 16 gemsboks, 16 kudus, 12 eland, 13 wilder beasts and six impala. However, Bangwato Kgosi, Lt. General Seretse Khama Ian Khama, turned down the offer of two elephants allocated for Serowe District. In a letter to the Minister, Kgosi Khama said he could not accept the offer since he is a conservation ambassador and elephants are an important part of his cause and plans for tourism in Gammangwato. He instead undertook to replace the elephants with three cows for each constituency.

The debate over the conservation of elephants assumed international status when former President Mokgweetsi Masisi publicly offered Germany twenty thousand elephants, driving home the predicament Botswana faces being host to the world’s largest number of elephants. There are concerns that elephants have surpassed the carrying capacity of some of their habitat in Botswana. Currently, the country authorises an annual quota of about 400 elephants to be hunted by communities living alongside elephants, mostly through trophy hunting partnerships.