Wildlife poaching, trade on the rise

Speaking at a three-day Wildlife Judicial and Prosecutorial Assistance Training workshop organised by the African Wildlife Funding in Gaborone recently, Mokowe said his department has observed two trends of poaching in the country, which are commercial and subsistence.  He explained that from their investigations over the years, they have realised that the country was losing a number of wildlife species to poaching.

“We have realised that elephant poaching in Botswana continues to rise more especially around the Ngami and Chobe areas and a little found in the Tuli Block area where pockets of elephants are found in the area. Furthermore, we have lost a rhino since 2013 to 2017. Last month this year, we have seen the pattern changing. Of recent, we lost two rhinos at Limpopo Lipadi Game Reserve towards the end of May. By the first week of June, we lost a rhino at Gantsi,” he said.