Botswana has issued hundreds of elephant hunting licenses

The Botswana government has issued hundreds of licenses for the controversial elephant hunt.

Cabello Senatso, director of the National Parks Authority, confirmed Tuesday that a total of 287 pachyderms have been approved for shooting at the start of the hunting season, which runs from April 6 to September 21. “The hunting season started this morning and is going as planned,” he said. It was temporarily postponed the previous year due to corona restrictions on the South African safari paradise.

“We already have local customers – some of whom are from the United States and other countries,” said Debbie Peek, a German newspaper company spokeswoman for the National Association for Wildlife Products (BWPA). Entering the country is relatively straightforward. “We’ve had a (hunting) ban for a few years and we’re glad to be back in business – it benefits communities and the national economy,” he stressed.

Botswana really has a good reputation for nature and animal protection in Africa. The lifting of the elephant poaching ban in the previous year has caused international outrage from animal rights activists. As the number of elephants in many parts of Africa is declining, according to official figures, in the landlocked country it was about 50,000 in 1991, up from a good 130,000 – about a third of the population of elephants in Africa.