The trusts, which are the custodians of wildlife concessions, want to dig their hands deep in the tourism honey pot which they believe can yield greater returns for their communities. Officials of one such trust, the Mababe Zokotsama Community Development Trust called for government to reconsider the value of hunting quotas issued yearly to trusts as they believe they can mop up more capital gains from the licences. The trust's general manager, Vusi Khumalo, told The Monitor that last year they made P4 million from quota fees plus land rental gains in excess of P900,000. He added that this year they project to rake in over P5 million from hunting licences only. “Hunting earns the most income for our communities. From licences alone, last year the people of Mababe made P4 million and this year we expect to make P5 million from the hunting licence quota of around 15 elephants,” he said.
“But we know we could be making more. Yearly, we hunt around 0.3 percent of the total population of elephants we have in the country. We could be making more because we have a lot more elephants.” Bureaucratically trusts are acknowledged as the guardians of natural resources in tourism hotspots in the country. They are guided by land use management plans to develop these areas into lodges, hotels, or hunting areas and make income from leasing or operating these areas. The Botswana government determines annual hunting quotas based on wildlife populations and conservation goals. This includes a set number of licences that can be issued for different species, including elephants. These quotas are then allocated to various community trusts.
The trusts are usually granted the right to manage the hunting of specific species in their designated areas. Once a community trust receives its hunting quotas, it typically enters into negotiations with professional hunting operators or safari companies. These operators are licensed and have the resources and expertise to conduct legal hunting expeditions. Khumalo further shared that whilst the hunting season is set to kick start in April, it would make more sense if hunting was an all-year-round activity. In defence of this proposition, he shared that the hunting quotas issued are only for male elephants and this won't disrupt animal reproduction timelines. “Those who call for controlled hunting don’t understand the reality on the ground. The truth is that only old male elephants are hunted and it would make more sense if the hunting was all year round,” Khumalo said. Wildlife hunting has witnessed a clash of ideologies between the left and right wings of political thought.
During the tenure of former president Ian Khama, a unilateral decision to ban all hunting was enacted, including safari hunting from January 1, 2014. The ban was later reversed by the regime of former president Mokgweetsi Masisi only to suffer from a movement in the British House of Lords seeking to thwart hunting activity in Botswana. In a nationwide consultation leading to the lifting of the ban, it was argued that the hunting concession areas act as a buffer zone between protected areas and human settlements that lessened cases of human-wildlife conflict. It was pointed out that Botswana is one of the few countries in the world that has set aside about 40% of its land for fauna and wildlife conservation. That it would be unfair to let the increased wildlife population expand its range, particularly elephants, into mixed-use areas. Communities, however, are clear in their voice, they support hunting and want it to increase as it is the mainstay of their livelihoods in the northern region of the country.
