An average of 20 people are killed or injured by wild animals including elephants on annual basis, Environment and Tourism Minister, Wilhemina Nnaniki Makwinja has revealed.
Officially opening the ongoing CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wilde Fauna and Flora) African Elephant dialogue in Maun on Monday this week, Makwinja noted that the country spends an estimated P30 million annually on compensation expenditure alone.
Expressing concern over some Western European countries that impose legislations that make management of these animals unsustainable, especially for Botswana which is a home to one of the largest elephant herds in the world, Makwinja said, ‘The ability to trade in legitimately and sustainably sourced wildlife and wildlife products goes to the very heart of our wildlife conservation policy in Botswana.
This is why we have noted with growing concern the hunting trophy import bans that are being imposed by some western European countries.
The minister further noted that while Botswana respects CITES right to impose stricter domestic measures, failure to recognise the importance of sustainable legal trade is having the unintended effect of hindering Botswana’s efforts to conserve wildlife and to safeguard community livelihoods.
Botswana is a home to an estimated 130 000 elephant population out of 450 000 global herd.
This makes it the largest herd by far in any country in the world and within Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA).
The KAZA landscape reportedly has 50 percent of African elephant population, which was estimated to be 230 000 in 2022 through a KAZA aerial survey.
The KAZA TFCA is a borderless free roaming area for wildlife between five countries, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Angola and Namibia and according to the Minister this largest transfrontier area in the world is to sustainably manage the KAZA landscape by harmonising wildlife management in partner countries.
“In our endeavour to sustainably manage the numbers and derive economic value from elephant resources, Botswana has developed and approved the National Elephant Management and Action Plan of 2012-2026 with its key element being Community beneficiation. We have a CITES quota which has been judiciously utilised to ensure that communities benefit from elephants thriving in their localities.”
Despite various measures of combating human-wildlife conflict, this conflict continues to happen anyway at an average of 10 000 incidents with estimated cases of 20 people killed or injured by wild animals annually.
According to the Minister, compensation expenditure at an estimated P30 million annually continue to rise unsustainably and as a consequence, the government recently embarked on a consultative exercise to develop a comprehensive human-wildlife conflict strategy for the country.
“This meeting in line with decision taken at the nineteenth CITES Conference of Parties (CoP) will be to consider a harmonisation of the conditions to take in live African elephants and propose relevant changes in Resolutions to the 20th meeting of the High-level Conference on implementation of CBD Cop15 and CITES Cop-19 outcomes, elephant range states also expressed their wish to expand the agenda of the Dialogue meeting to include salient issues of ivory stockpiles and sustainable financing for elephant conservation,” noted Makwinja. She also explained that, “It was agreed this meeting would be held well in advance of Cop20 and Botswana is hosting in order to ensure we attain our goal as range states.”
Makwinja also revealed that results of the KAZA elephant survey found their way into the African elephant status report and will be deliberated upon during the meeting.
“We are a continent that is rich in biodiversity and our cooperation to conserve these resources is imperative for sustainability and for our future generations. This gathering and its outcomes should therefore be viewed within the context of the continental Agenda 2063. The Africa we want, which recognises the critical role that natural resources has and continues to play in Africa’s sustainable development and socio-economic transformation,” said Makwinja in conclusion.