Scandal or accommodation needed? Botswana on Wednesday (May 22nd) lifted the ban on hunting elephants on its territory, arguing that the pachyderm population had increased and had a negative effect on farmers' incomes.
The move sparked protests from biodiversity advocates but is expected to prove popular with rural voters, ahead of a presidential poll scheduled for October.
Commercial hunting of endangered wildlife, including elephants, was banned in 2014 by Botswana's president Ian Khama, a fervent protector of the environment.
But ruling party MPs were pushing to lift the ban, saying that elephant populations had become unmanageable in parts of southern Africa.
And the new Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi, who came to power last year, had distanced himself from the predatory defense policy at all costs initiated by his predecessor, ordering a review of the measure.
"Botswana has made the decision to lift the moratorium on hunting," the Ministry of the Environment said in a statement. According to him, a study has shown that "conflicts between humans and elephants have increased in number and intensity and increasingly affect the livelihoods" of the inhabitants.
The ministry promised that the hunt would resume "in an orderly and ethical manner".
"Scandalous"
It is "scandalous", denounced Humane Society International, based in London. Botswana's elephant population is "vital to the regional survival of this iconic species," she said.
Botswana has by far the largest elephant population in Africa, with 135,000 individuals recorded in 2015, who move freely and many of whom pass through Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Some experts estimate that their number has almost tripled in thirty years, and could now reach 160,000.
Poaching is the main threat to pachyderms, whose tusks are selling for gold in Asia, especially to serve the needs of traditional medicine.
Wildlife advocates are adamantly opposed to the reinstatement of hunting, which they say would ruin Botswana tourism, one of the pillars of its economy.
With AFP