24 Sep 2018

There is no exponential increase in elephant poaching in Botswana, contrary to recent claims by Dr Michael Chase of Elephants Without Borders (EWB).

Speaking to journalists in Kasane recently, National Anti-Poaching Committee (NACP) chairperson, Brigadier Simon Barwabatsile explained that the annual national average of poached elephants was about 80 from hundreds thousands of elephants that roam the wilderness in this country.

He said while 63 elephants have been poached from January to date, this could not by any means be regarded as a surge in elephant poaching activities.

The NACP, which comprises of Botswana Defence Force, Botswana Police Service, Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DIS) and Department of Wildlife and National Parks, among others, is responsible for all anti-poaching strategies and operations around the country.

Following recent claims by EWB that there was a surge in elephant poaching activities in the northern parts of Botswana, which resulted in the killing of 87 elephants over a short period of time by poachers, Brigadier Barwabatsile and a team of officers from the police and DIS went to establish the credibility of the reports.

“We went to the areas that were referenced and managed to meet the sources who had the information. To date we have been able to identify 19 that were referred to, with only six confirmed to be victims of poaching,” said Brigadier Barwabatsile.

A group of local and international journalists were taken by government on a fact-finding tour last week to such areas as Savuti, Linyanti, Mababe and Khwae in northern Botswana to find for themselves the elephant carcasses referred to in Dr Chase’s report.

After a grueling two days of traversing the vast area, about 11 elephant carcasses, some of them over a year old, were shown to journalists.

There was no sign of mass death of elephants.

Brigadier Barwabatsile said some elephants from the 19 identified by his team died as a result of human-wildlife conflict and due to natural causes such as diseases.

He said they usually realise that an elephant was killed by poachers when they see cuts on its backbone, missing tip of the tail and a damaged skull.

He said when the elephant had died of natural death the skull was usually intact.

“Currently the situation is constant. There is poaching which is reported from time to time. There are contacts that are made from time to time (between soldiers and poachers) and the figures are consistent with the previous years, there hasn’t been any exponential increase,” said Brigadier Barwabatsile.

He said poaching has been going on for many years and that was the reason the military was roped in to assist in areas around the border since poachers were usually armed and dangerous.

However, he stressed that poaching had not escalated as the social media might have perceived it.

“It is the poaching that we have seen over the years, which we are concerned about. Every elephant poached is a concern for us. When they increase it becomes even more concerning,” he added.

Brigadier Barwabatsile explained that because the northern region had a high elephant population, the area has become a hotspot for poachers, hence it was assigned specifically to the military to patrol in the 1970s. ENDS