Wildlife trusts hit back at Khama
Mbongeni Mguni - Innocent Selatlhwa | Monday February 26, 2024 06:00
On Wednesday, the SKI Khama Foundation announced that the former president is in the United Kingdom for a tour that will include lobbying the British House of Commons to ban trophy hunting. Khama will also be interviewed by the Daily Telegraph and there’s a possibility of a broadcast to Sky News.
On Thursday, in a rare direct response to the former president, a statement signed by 18 community trusts based in Ngamiland, Okavango and other areas, said Khama’s planned activities in the United Kingdom were “misguided and counterproductive”
The communities state they are deeply concerned about the potential implications of such a ban on the sustainable benefits from wildlife conservation efforts.
“The communities argue that the proposed ban overlooks the complex dynamics of wildlife conservation in Botswana and fails to take into account the perspectives and needs of the local communities who have been actively involved in conserving wildlife for years,” reads the joint statement. “It is the belief of the Botswana communities that enforcing a blanket ban on trophy hunting is not a panacea for conservation but rather a threat to the sustainable benefits they derive from wildlife.
The British House of Lords last year killed a bill to prohibit the importation of hunting trophies into the United Kingdom, after local and regional wildlife communities directly lobbied the lords. The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, which sailed through the House of Commons in that country, would have all but dried up the flow of British trophy hunters to countries such as Botswana.
The former president’s renewed lobbying in the UK, where he is scheduled to meet “several members of the House of Commons” as well as legislators across the divide, is the latest in Khama’s spirited campaign against hunting.
Khamahas railed against the resumption of hunting since his successor, President Mokgweetsi Masisi, reintroduced the activity in 2019 after a countrywide consultation conducted by a Presidential Sub-Committee of Cabinet.
Prior to that, in 2014, Khama’s administration had abruptly slapped a moratorium on hunting, arguing that the age-old Setswana cultural activity was endangering conservation.
According to data presented in 2018 by former Maun East MP, Kostantinos Markus, community trusts went from earning P11.3 million in revenues from hunting prior to 2014, before plummeting to P5.6m in 2015 and even lower in later years.
In 2022, local communities earned P31.3 million in hunting revenues flowed to communities that actually live with the wildlife, through the trusts and the concessions.
While hunters from the United States represent the majority of arrivals in the country, the UK is not only also an important source, but analysts believe legislative action in that country could trigger similar actions across the EU.
In their letter, the trusts said any new ban could have detrimental effects on their livelihoods, as many communities living alongside wildlife already face challenges from wildlife co-habitation such as crop degradation, loss of life, and competition for essential resources like water holes.
Furthermore, the communities expressed concerns that a ban on trophy hunting could exacerbate existing tensions between humans and wildlife, potentially leading to negative perceptions towards wildlife conservation.
“Such negative perceptions could undermine Botswana's efforts to achieve sustainable development goals, particularly if the Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill is passed without considering the local communities' perspectives. “The communities fear that the lobbying efforts of the former President could undo the progress made by Botswana communities, the government, conservation experts from the University of Botswana, and international organisations in promoting sustainable wildlife management practices,” they wrote.
The communities further called for a more inclusive and balanced approach to wildlife conservation that takes into account the needs and perspectives of local communities who are directly impacted by conservation policies and decisions.
In their united stance, they firmly asserted that dismissing the potential community benefits of trophy hunting without directly engaging with the communities involved, reflects an attitude of superiority that contradicts the shared commitment to ensuring the future conservation of the planet.
“We stand united in our dedication to both the welfare of our communities and the preservation of our invaluable natural resources,” they stated.
Masisi late last year hailed the failure of the UK legislation telling a local press conference that he was happy.
“We are very happy it failed because this is our sustainable economic product that we have managed better than anybody else in the world. “Why should we be denied to trade our economic product,” Masisi said, further questioning whether Botswana had ever prevented any country from trade in sustainable economic products that they have.
Last June, local trust leaders and their allies from academia went to London and took the House of Lords through the arguments for controlled hunting and the devastating impact on communities of the 2014 to 2019 hunting ban in Botswana. They also shared how the “preferred” alternative of photographic tourism failed dismally to replace hunting incomes and how the populations of species such as elephants were threatening biodiversity, killing and injuring humans and frequently decimating lifelines such as agriculture.
“They said some of the things, they didn’t know about them and they said they would go, sit down and consider them,” Siyoka Simasiku, executive director of the Ngamiland Council of Non-Governmental Organisations told Mmegi last June, after meeting some members of the House of Lords. “Many of the people here don’t travel widely and instead get their information from what others have written. “They don’t understand how people are living with animals and are actually being fed some kind of rosy picture of the whole situation. “They think we live with these animals the way they live with dogs and cats, but it’s actually a life or death situation for us. “So, they don’t know these things and think we are simply cruel people.”
In their latest letter, the community leaders said they stand united in their dedication to both “the welfare of our communities and the preservation of our invaluable natural resources”.
Trophy hunting in Botswana enjoys conditional endorsement from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which has also approved annual elephant tusk export quotas.
However, anti-hunting activists have lobbied legislators, celebrities and consumers in key markets such as the US and Europe to boycott Botswana as a tourist destination.