A nation apart

Even their elected legislative representative is in the dark. On Tuesday, Ronald Shamukuni broke his and his community’s silence by questioning the criteria that informed Botswana’s decision to fight for the uplisting of elephants at the recent CITES Conference of Parties.

In October, Botswana threw in its lot with the African Elephant Coalition which pushed for the uplisting of all African elephants to CITES strictest category, Appendix 1, which bars any trade whatsoever in the animals or their products.