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Tag: hunting

  • Commission warns of prosecution for violating wildlife hunting ban

    Commission warns of prosecution for violating wildlife hunting ban

    The Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission has imposed a four-month prohibition on hunting, capturing, and eliminating wild animals within the nation’s forests.

    As per the Wildlife Conservation Regulation, 1971 (L.I. 685), the annual ban on hunting all wild species, excluding the grasscutter which requires a license, will be effective from 1st August to 1st December this year.

    Speaking to our reporter Kwabena Manu, the Protected Area Manager of Digya National Park Atebubu Amantin Game and Wildlife Manager Mr Eric Attah Kusi stated that the purpose is to provide relief for wild animals such as dikers, royal antelopes, and boars (bush pigs), which supply the majority of game (bush meat), as it is breeding season.

    He stated that “it is imperative that the animals are given respite from hunting to wean their young for a successful recruitment into the next generation.”

    Eric Atta Kusi urged the public not to buy game, dead or alive, except for grasscutter, so that hunters would find it unprofitable to hunt the animals.

    He stated that study had revealed that the “close season” for grasscutter might result in large numbers, potentially affecting agricultural production, hence the need for the permit to allow for controlled hunting during the season.

    He warned that violators of the ban will face prosecution.

  • Botswana auctions off permits to hunt elephants

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

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

    The government sold seven hunting licences on Friday, with each allowing hunters to kill 10 elephants in “controlled hunting areas”.

    Officials 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 rural communities, but has been heavily criticised by conservationists.

    How did the auctions work?
    Seven packages of 10 elephants each were sold at the auction in the capital Gaborone on Friday afternoon, the BBC’s Southern Africa correspondent Nomsa Maseko reports.

    Only companies registered in Botswana were allowed to bid for the licences. Bidders 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 AFP news agency.

    Why was the ban reversed?

    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 who are 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.

    Ross Harvey, an environmental economist in South Africa, told the BBC: “There is no scientific evidence to support the view of there being too many elephants.

    “We know that Botswana’s elephant numbers haven’t actually increased over the last five years, we have a stable population. Elephants are critical to Botswana’s ecology.”

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

    Source: bbc.com

  • Botswana to auction elephant hunting licences

    Botswana will hold its first auction, since a ban was lifted, for trophy hunters with the aim of selling licences to kill 70 elephants.

    The government is selling seven hunting packages, with each one containing licences to kill 10 elephants.

    Bidders will have to deposit $18,000 (£13,900) in order to take part.

    The 2020 hunting season will begin in April with licences to kill another 200 hundred elephants to be issued later.

    Botswana had in 2014 issued a blanket ban on the hunting of elephants to protect the animals.

    The ban was seen as a conservation success story.

    But last year the ban was lifted by President Mokgweetsi Masisi in a move critics say is as an attempt to appeal to rural voters who are more likely to come into conflict with elephants.

    Government officials argued that the animals were eating crops and at times trampling on people.

    Botswana has the world’s largest number of elephants with an estimated 130,000 within its borders.

    Source: bbc.com