No other country in the world has more elephants than Botswana, and now the African nation is threatening to send 20,000 of the animals to Germany. This stems from a recent potential policy change proposed by the German government that would place stricter limits on trophy hunting imports due to poaching concerns.
Just a decade ago, over a third of Botswana’s population was living in poverty. However, the country experienced an economic turnaround in the subsequent years and is now listed as an upper-middle-income nation, with the experts suggesting it could reach high-income by 2036.
This transformation has occurred thanks in part to the millions of dollars that the more impoverished, rural regions of Botswana receive every year from trophy hunters.
Botswana had previously implemented a ban on this practice in 2014, but reversed that decision back in 2019 amid overpopulation concerns. The country is now home to more than 130,000 elephants, but experts say it can only ecologically support about 25,000 to 50,000.
Government officials in Botswana assert trophy hunting is bringing in much needed revenue while keeping the elephant populations that roam across 40% of the country in check. According to the nation’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, should Germany move ahead with tougher bans on trophy hunting, it could result in increased poverty and locals being left to deal with more elephants than they can handle.
“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,” said Masisi, adding that the German people should try to “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to.”
This would not be the first time Botswana has tried to offload some of its elephants to other nations, previously offering 8,000 to Angola and 500 to Mozambique. With Masisi declaring he “won’t take no for answer” in regards to his latest offer of 20,000 of the elephants to Germany, it still remains to be seen if any will actually make their way to Europe.