Botswana has threatened to send 20,00 elephants to Germany after Environment Minister Steffi Lemke from Green Party floated a ban on the import of hunting trophies.
Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi criticized Berlin's proposed restrictions, saying they would impoverish Botswanans — pointing out that the southern African country is overrun with the tuskers.
“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 – and even for Lemke’s party,” he told German tabloid Bild, adding that people in his country are trampled to death by elephants, crops are destroyed and villages are devastated.
Botswana is a home to a third of worldwide elephant population with 130,000 specimens counted and 6,000 added every year.
Masisi argued that conservation efforts would only worsen the situation, and authorities viewed hunting as a way to control the booming elephant population.
Apart from hunting the only other way is 'deportation'. Botswana has already given away 8,000 elephants to Angola and Mozambique still has to take in its contingent.
"And we would like to make such an offer to the Federal Republic of Germany. We don't take no for an answer," Masisi said.
The president said he was looking forward to sending the pachyderms to Berlin, adding that he was "dead serious" about the gift.
In 2014, the then-president of Botswana, Ian Kharma, banned trophy hunting of elephants. But President Mokgweetsi Masisi rescinded the ban in 2019 under pressure from local communities. The Botswanan government now allocates annual trophy-hunting quotas.
Germany’s Environment Ministry spokeswoman told media outlets that Botswana had yet to inform Berlin of the issue. She added that “in light of the alarming loss of biological diversity,” Germany is saddled with ensuring that the “import of hunting trophies is sustainable and legal.”
A 2021 report by the Humane Society International revealed that Germany is the EU’s top importer of elephant hunt trophies.