02 Jun 2019

Botswana is a prudent steward of all wildlife, says President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Speaking at the 2019 Las Vegas Jewelry Circular Keystone Trade Show on May 31, the President said the reason why the country was now grappling with a huge elephant population was due to its deliberate conservation policies.

These conservation policies, he noted, provided a safe haven for wild animals so much so that Botswana now has many elephant refugees. These elephants ran away from wars and poachers in neighbouring countries, he added.

“The land can no longer support such a huge number of elephants,” he said, noting that elephants were destroying their habitat, which they shared with other animals, causing them to move out of the area.

He gave as an example the disappearance of the red buck or lechwe and lions along the Chobe River.

Not only are the animals destroying their shared habitat, they are now encroaching into villages and killing people and their livestock.

He told attendants that many a times the citizens had to make way for wildlife, especially elephants. The whole cycle is not sustainable, hence the need to control elephant population.

President Masisi further stated that because Botswana was a multi-party democracy, government consulted with Batswana on how to manage wildlife that would result in the realisation of the country’s commitment to environmental policies.

“We talked to people from a premise of wanting to do all we can to protect many of our elephants. We involved the communities in the management of these elephants because they are first line of defence for the animals.

This is a delicate balance that we are drawing. Mind you, we are the most successful country in the world when it comes to managing the elephants. 

So truly, anyone should come to ask us how we do it before the elephants become a threat to themselves,” he said.

Furthermore, President Masisi noted that while CITES allowed Botswana to kill 400 elephants per year, the quota was still too low to maintain the population, thus Kavango-Zambezi Trans-frontier Area (KAZA) was now working to protect wildlife along shared Zambezi and Kavango rivers.

During the President’s address, one heckler demanded to know why the President was ‘killing elephants’. “You have blood in your hands!” she shouted.

In response, President Masisi asked the moderator to have the woman sit down so he could answer her.

“I wish she could seat down so I could talk to her. The gentleman escorting her, could you kindly convince her to listen so that I can talk to and invite her to Botswana,” he said, which answer was met by great applause. ENDS