Hunting trophies
In protest against the law: Botswana wants to send 20,000 elephants to Germany
Elephants in Germany? If Botswana’s president gets serious, 20,000 of the animals could be stomping around in this country
© Clinton36992 / Imago Images
The German Environment Ministry wants to ban the import of hunting trophies. This doesn’t sit well with the president of Botswana, where there is an overpopulation of elephants. He therefore has an unusual suggestion.
Angered by Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke’s (Greens) legislative plans, the African state of Botswana wants to hand over 20,000 elephants to Germany. The fact that the German minister wants to ban the import of hunting trophies promotes poverty and poaching in Botswana and is damaging the country, said Botswana’s President Mokgweetsi Masisi “Bild” (Wednesday edition). The Germans should “live with the animals the way you try to tell us,” said Masisi – and added: “This is no joke.”
Hunting as a way to combat too many elephants in Botswana
Thanks to successful species protection, his country now has more than 130,000 elephants, more than any other African country, said the president. There is an “overpopulation” with constant growth. That’s why Botswana has already given 8,000 elephants to neighboring Angola. “And that’s exactly how we would like to offer such a gift to the Federal Republic of Germany,” said Masisi. “We don’t take no for an answer.”
In his country, people are attacked and trampled to death by elephants, villages are devastated and crops are destroyed, said Masisi. Hunting is an important means of regulating the population. The condition for the move is that the elephants live in the wild in Germany and that they are picked up. The president said he wanted to “find out how Ms. Lemke is doing with it.”