Botswana takes softly-softly approach to return of elephant hunting

Botswana has reintroduced elephant hunts with a cautious approach to pricing, a move that’s likely to further inflame the controversy that’s threatening a $2bn tourism industry after a five-year ban on hunting was lifted.

The government will auction licences to hunting operators for the right to shoot 158 elephants but is yet to decide on the minimum price it will set at the sales, said Kitso Mokaila, the country’s environment minister.

There will also be a charge of 20,000 pula ($1,830) for each of 72 elephant hunting licences designated for foreigners, according to government documents seen by Bloomberg. That compares with at least $21,000 for the right to shoot an elephant in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population, with about 130,000 of the animals roaming free nationwide.

“It’s a very reasonable price,” said Dries van Coller, president of the Professional Hunters Association in SA. “They would rather proceed with caution, and see how it goes.”

President Mokgweetsi Masisi put pachyderms at the centre of Botswana’s politics ahead of October elections, breaking ranks with his predecessor, Ian Khama, and angering conservationists by saying elephants are too numerous and threaten villagers. While his stance has won widespread rural support, it’s prompted warnings from US activists that tourists may go elsewhere.

Still, by lifting the hunting ban Botswana has brought itself in line with its neighbours. The number of hunting licences is below the 400 cap it set itself, and compares with 500 licences in Zimbabwe and 90 in Namibia. In SA, foreign hunters generated R1.95bn in 2017. Fewer than 50 elephants are shot in SA annually and Zambia has allocated 37 licences for this year.

The all-in cost of an elephant hunt typically involves several hundred dollars a day for the professional hunters who accompany the tourists, as well as accommodation and taxidermy fees. Hunts can last 10 to 18 days on average. Most trophy hunters in Southern Africa come from the US.

“We want to start off cautiously and steadily to see if all that we want under the guidelines can be done properly,” Mokaila said. The sales will start soon, he added.

Tourism, mainly in the form of photographic safaris around the country’s Okavango and Chobe regions, accounts for a fifth of Botswana’s economy.

Bloomberg