Angry with Germany, Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants

Displeased with a potential ban on hunting trophy imports in Germany, Botswana, home to the world's largest elephant population, threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Berlin. According to President Mokgweetsi Masisi, hunting is necessary to regulate the increasing number of elephants, a claim disputed by animal rights activists.

He wanted to make a splash. Mokgweetsi Masisi can say he succeeded. In an interview published on Wednesday, April 3 in Bild, Germany's most read tabloid, the President of Botswana threatened to offer 20,000 elephants to Berlin so that "Germans begin to understand what the people of Botswana experience daily."

"We would like to offer such a gift to Germany," he declared. "This is not a joke," the President of Botswana felt necessary to specify.

In this interview, the African leader states that conservation efforts have led to an explosion in the number of elephants in his country over the past thirty years and that hunting is a good way to regulate the number of elephants.

So when Berlin wishes to ban the import of hunting trophies, Gaborone sees red. "It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion on our affairs in Botswana. We are paying the price for preserving these animals for the entire world," estimated Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Slightly larger than France, the Southern African country with only 2.5 million inhabitants is a conservation example: 40% of its territory is classified as protected natural areas and it alone accounts for nearly a third of the world's elephant population, or 130,000 mammals.

Living with Elephants

While the number of elephants continued to decline on the African continent, it tripled since the mid-1980s in Botswana. However, cohabitation between these 6-ton animals and the population is far from smooth sailing. Elephants, not confined to reserves, roam freely, occasionally killing livestock, trampling crops, or causing sometimes fatal incidents with humans. Daily life with elephants is particularly challenging in the Okavango Delta, where thousands of villagers suffer from the nuisances and dangers associated with the presence of protected wildlife.

Under pressure from local communities, President Masisi decided to reintroduce hunting quotas in 2019 after five years of total ban imposed to reverse the decline in elephant populations. With this decision, Botswana aligned itself with the practices of its neighbors such as Namibia and Zimbabwe, which allow elephant hunting.

The stated objective was then to reduce the number of elephants and move them away from villages. "Elephants are intelligent creatures and therefore avoided hunting areas as much as possible until hunting was banned," explains Dilys Roe, president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, interviewed by NBC.

But once the ban was in effect, elephants "not only reentered these areas but also ventured onto adjacent farmland, causing enormous damage to crops and livelihoods," the expert adds.

However, animal rights organizations assure that other, much less expedient, means exist to control the populations of this iconic biodiversity animal. An example is immunocontraception, which blocks fertilization of the egg in females. An effective method that has spread, especially in South Africa. Moreover, NGOs accuse hunting of disrupting herds and increasing the risk of attacks.

A License to Kill for €35,000

Beyond the issue of regulation, hunting is also a good way to bring foreign currency into the country. Especially by betting on upscale tourism, one of the most dynamic sectors of the economy after diamond mining, of which Botswana is the world's second-largest producer.

Because elephant hunting is not accessible to all budgets. Transport, food, a team of several companions... wealthy clients must pay many expenses, including an expensive hunting license amounting to tens of thousands of dollars.

In 2020, the first sale of permits after the reintroduction of hunting had brought in over two million dollars to Botswana's public finances. There were seven lots authorizing the killing of ten elephants each, or €35,000 per head.

Prices can soar for the rarest specimens. In 2022, a South African hunter paid $50,000 (about €46,000 at the current rate) to shoot a Tusker, an elephant with very large tusks, which is endangered. A deadly safari that, at the time, caused a scandal.

Alert in Hyde Park

For several years, enthusiasts of hunting big African mammals have been in Brussels' sights. Several European countries including France, the Netherlands, and Belgium have banned the import of trophies such as heads, skins, or tusks of protected animals.

Germany, the largest European importer of hunting trophies, could now follow suit. Earlier this year, the German Minister of the Environment mentioned the possibility of imposing stricter limits on trophy imports in the name of environmental protection and combating poaching.

"Given the alarming loss of biodiversity, we have a particular responsibility to ensure that the import of hunting trophies is sustainable and legal," justified the German Ministry of the Environment to the Guardian.

A decision that will impoverish Botswana, deplores its president in Bild. Here again, this argument is challenged by NGOs. Because the revenue generated by trophies hardly benefits local populations. While the Southern African country ranks among the most prosperous nations on the continent with a GDP per capita of around $8,000, it is also one of the most unequal in the world.

Despite President Masisi's angry outburst, the presence of thousands of elephants cooling off on the banks of the Rhine or frolicking in the plains of Saxony is not in the cards for tomorrow. "There is currently no official request to transfer 20,000 elephants from Botswana to Germany," a spokesman for the German government soberly commented.

The president's far-fetched threat might have seemed more credible if Mokgweetsi Masisi had not made the same one a few weeks ago. To protest against a vote by British MPs proposing the ban of trophy imports, he had promised to send 10,000 elephants to Hyde Park. Unsurprisingly, London has still not seen a single trunk on the horizon.