‘No joke’: Botswana threatens to send thousands of elephants to Germany over hunting row

Botswanapresident Mokgweetsi Masisi has threatened to send around 20,000 elephants to Germany saying that its conservation efforts and suggestion to limit importing trophies from hunting animals could have an impact on Botswanans.

Botswana to send elephants?

The threat comes after Germany’s environment ministry, earlier this year, raised the possibility of having stringent limits on the import of hunting trophies over poaching concerns.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

However, the President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi told German daily Bild that it would only impoverish Botswanans.

According to Masisi, the population of elephants has exploded due to conservation efforts and hunting is an important way to keep them in check.

Also Read |Russians rush to join army seeking to avenge Moscow concert hall attack

The Botswanan president also spoke about how these elephants have wreaked havoc in his country by damaging property, eating crops, and trampling residents.

“It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana. We are paying the price for preserving these animals for the world,” Masisi said.

Germans should “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to,” he told the Bild, adding that, “This is no joke.”

Notably, the Southern African country banned trophy hunting in 2014 but lifted the restrictions in 2019 under pressure from local communities.

Botswana is home to over 130,000 elephants, one of the world’s largest populationsand more than it has space for.

The country has previously sent 8,000 elephants to Angola and another 500 to Mozambique. Last month, Botswana had also threatened to send 10,000 elephants to London.

“We would like to offer such a gift to Germany,” Masisi said, adding that he would “not take no for an answer”.

Germany and trophy hunting

The German environment ministry led by Green minister Steffi Lemke has sought to ban the import of trophies.

Meanwhile, animal rights groups have backed Lemke’s proposal and sought the measure calling the practice of shooting an animal and then taking a part of it back home as a trophy, cruel.

It is “a hobby of rich, jaded people who have more money than morals,” a PETA spokesperson told Politico.

Also Read |Entire population of Japan to have same surname by 2531, study suggests

A spokesperson for the environment ministry in Germany told news agency AFP, that Gaborone had not raised any concerns with Berlin on the matter and would remain in talks with African countries affected by import rules, including Botswana.

Berlin is the European Union’s largest importer of African elephant trophies, and hunting trophies overall, said the spokesperson.

The spokesperson also told AFP that as per the current rules African elephant hunting trophies require import authorisation, but that the EU is planning harsher restrictions.

(With inputs from agencies)