Botswana’s president has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany amid a dispute over the import of hunting trophies.
Earlier this year Germany’s environment ministry raised the possibility of stricter limits on the import of hunting trophies over poaching concerns. But a ban on the import of hunting trophies would only impoverish Botswanans, Mokgweetsi Masisi told German daily Bild.
The African leader argued that conservation efforts have led to an explosion in the number of elephants and that hunting is an important means to keep them in check. Botswana banned trophy hunting in 2014 but lifted the restrictions in 2019 under pressure from local communities. The country now issues annual hunting quotas.
Herds of elephants were causing damage to property, eating crops and trampling residents, Masisi told the German paper.
“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,” he said.
Germans should “live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to.”
