Kereng engages British public on trophy hunting

Botswana’s environment Minister Philda Kereng has taken her campaign against the United Kingdom’s Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, this time by enlisting the British general public through an online debate facilitated by the Mail Newspaper.

But what emerges from the debate is that there is a lot of ignorance amongst the public, which certainly will require a concerted public education drive to sell the massage through.

For instance, as a response to her debate, comments like “This person is full of D***s, is she after an award from kc3. We are actually reporting more children and people killed by pit bulls than she has mentioned killed by elephants” to which another Brit replied “I think you're massively missing her point”.

Another comment reads, ‘I understand the need for culling but what I can't understand is the pleasure these trophy hunters get from the kill’ - run through the online debates feedback page.

The Bill was introduced as a Private Member’s Bill by Conservative MP Henry Smith. It seeks to prohibit the import of endangered species as hunting trophies into Great Britain, helping to reduce the threats the species face.

Kereng’s appeal is that instead of approving this Bill, which spells devastating consequences for Botswana’s over 150 000 elephants, communities as well as tourism, the United Kingdom government and the global community should assist in developing an ivory trade tracer system modelled on the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme on diamonds.

In the debate she implored, “I understand why you Brits don't like trophy hunting. But it's helped Botswana sustain the world's biggest elephant herd”, before demonstrating how innocent Batswana of all ages are often tragically killed by charging wild buffaloes as they travel to school, work, or any place of their choice.

She said burying family members killed by wildlife, or losing entire crops to marauding elephant herds, is all too common in her country.

Last month, the Bill passed its second reading in the House of Lords, and is currently awaiting the crucial Committee Stage. She said that given the urgency, she travelled to London to highlight the “terrible impact” this Bill would have on conservation efforts, not only in Botswana, but in other African nations as well.

“I do understand the horror people feel when they see a photograph of a trophy hunter posing beside a recent kill”. Lion killings in particular seem to cause outrage among Britons, especially after the notorious shooting of Cecil the lion by a US trophy hunter in Zimbabwe in 2015.

“It is a wildlife conservation measure that generates income used to combat illegal poaching, support community development and enhance habitat protection”.

Kereng explained that hunting revenue has connected villages to clean water and electricity, built roads and schools, founded businesses and helped struggling families. It has also created watering holes for animals that lie safely beyond village boundaries, and created animal-proof sensors that can alert villagers if wildlife is close.

Sadly, all too often, Westerners focus solely on animal welfare at the expense of human life in Africa. To this assertion one debater said; “I understand the need for culling but what I can't understand is the pleasure these trophy hunters get from the kill”.

Another said “If you're not into it. Don't do it. Problem solved”.

Kereng said to talk about wildlife without taking into account lives and livelihoods is a terrible misstep — which is why, while prioritising sustainable development, the Botswana government also puts people at the heart of policy.

Since the 1980s, and with the ongoing support of the UK, Botswana has implemented a community-based natural resource management programme, allocating hunting quotas to communities, administered by a trust set up by villagers.

Once issued with their quota, communities can then find global partners who will pay for the right to hunt. These rights are tightly controlled and hunting without a permit carries a hefty prison term ranging from five to 10 years.

In response one of the readers commented, “Wildlife abusers always jump on the Conservation bandwagon. The trophy hunting bill will be sabotaged by amendments from Country side Alliance members in the unelected House of Lords”.

In her appeal lecture to the 22 members of the House of the Lords, Kereng said that the United Kingdom has been a very strong and reliable ally to Botswana in many of the Multilateral Environment Agreements that “we jointly implement”, citing the GBP100 million that United Kingdom is investing in Botswana and other ecologically-sensitive landscapes through the Biodiverse Landscapes Fund (BLF).

Additionally, Botswana and the UK have co-hosted Illegal Wildlife Trade (IWT) summits in Kasane (2015) and London (2018), to help shape the global discourse on IWT. “In so doing, the United Kingdom has contributed immensely to Botswana’s wildlife conservation success”, she said.

Furthermore, the UK Government joined other donors in supporting the 2022 Elephants Survey in the Kavango Zambezi (KAZA) Trans-frontier Conservation Area (TFCA) – comprising Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe; a landscape with more than 50 percent of the Africa Savannah elephants.

“While we represent Botswana, the views expressed herein are shared by many Governments from across Africa where sustainable use and community beneficiation, which is one of the three objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) Convention, creates value for communities that co-exist with wildlife”.

She said Botswana believes in science-based decisions and policies hence the undertaking of consistent national surveys of elephants since the 1980s as the basis for strategies and management decisions for single species and wildlife in general.

Kereng’s presentation attracted comments from Mail readers; One said, “The UK is not telling you what to do. It is just telling UK citizens that they will not be allowed to bring their so called trophies back into this Country.'

Another said, “It's a cowardly past time for sick cowardly rich people”, while yet another one responded, “Unintended consequences of trying to do good and the human carnivore only preserves other creatures as potential products, which have no intrinsic right to exist, other creatures are merely vermin”.

It is evidently clear from the comments which are still pouring in that Botswana, SADC, and the African continent must launch an aggressive education campaign.