The president of Botswana threatened to send 20 thousand to Germany. elephants

Banning the import of hunting trophies would only impoverish the people of Botswana, Mokgweetsi Masisi told German daily Bild.

Conservation efforts are working better than expected, he said, and the elephant population has soared, making hunting an important tool to help control it. Botswana in 2014 banned trophy hunting, but lifted the restrictions in 2019 under pressure from local communities. The country now issues annual hunting quotas.

Elephant herds damaged property, ate crops, and sometimes even trampled residents, M. Masisi told a German newspaper.

“It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana. We are paying the price for saving these animals for the world,” the president said.

Germans should “live alone with animals as you are trying to tell us,” Masisi said.

Botswana has the largest elephant population in the world, and their number has grown to 130,000. The country’s leadership has already offered 8,000 elephants to Angola and another 500 to Mozambique in an effort to tackle what Ms Masisi called an “overpopulation”. In March, officials also threatened to send 10,000 elephants to London.

“We would like to offer such a gift to Germany,” Masisi said, adding that he “wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

A spokesman for the Ministry of Environment in Berlin said that Botswana had not raised any doubts with Germany on this issue. The ministry is still in talks with African countries subject to the import rules, including Botswana, the spokeswoman said.

“Given the alarming loss of biodiversity, we have a special responsibility to do everything we can to ensure that hunting trophy imports are sustainable and legal,” she said.

According to her, Germany is one of the biggest importers of hunting trophies in the European Union.

She added that current regulations already require an import permit for hunting trophies from African elephants. According to her, the EU’s discussions on stricter import restrictions focus on expanding the list of protected species.

Based on information from The Guardian.