Botswana Bans Hunting from 2013

Botswana Bans Hunting
06 Nov 2012

Botswana's president Ian Khama has announced that the government will no longer issue licenses for hunting wild animals in the country.

In a progressive move to protect the country's natural heritage and the tourism industry, he said that the government of Botswana, through the Environment and Wildlife Ministry, would stop issuing hunting licenses as of next year.

In the address to locals in Maun (the spring-board town to the popular Okavango Delta), Khama said that the issuing of hunting licenses has fuelled poaching in the country and prevented the tourism industry from growing sustainably and significantly.

The Okavango Delta, home to a remarkable diversity of animals, plants and birds, attracts thousands of visitors from around the world each year. It's Africa's largest wetland wilderness.

Hunting concessions are currently operated within the delta, as well as in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve further south.

Khama made clear that tourism is increasingly important for Botswana and contributes at least 12 percent to the overall GDP of the country.

Our wildlife control measure through issuance of hunting licenses has reached its limit, said Khama.


**This was coppied from another site**

This has been said before. I hope it's just another threat.

I would say a few thousand elephants will die of starvation or poachers, because I have watched plenty of film on the area....and there are way to many elephants walking around, the population is out of control.

I wonder what percentage of the 12% of GDP that "tourism" brings in, is directly related to hunting in bots?
I see our wonderful green friends out there have jumped on the band wagon in regards to this topic and are all piping in that this is the model Africa should follow, I think they said the same thing when Kenya banned hunting. IDIOTS

Remember, when you ban hunting, you save all the animals from those bad hunters. THE IDIOTS forget about the poachers or animals starving to death, but they could care less, they just saved the animals from dieing from bullets and arrows. Forget about wildlife conservation and the economy.

Here is an email that AH member spike.t received and wanted me to share here...


Botswana President Announces End of Hunting As Hunting Leases Are Extended

President of Botswana Ian Khama has announced that no one will be allowed to hunt wildlife in Botswana come 2014. He made the statement during a recent visit to the Sankoyo and Mababe areas, where elephant/human conflicts have increased and where residents have historically voted for the opposition party. Khama promised the people there 100 percent compensation for damages to crops and property by elephant (versus the current 35 percent compensation) and the replacement of all cattle lost to lions and other predators. But his blanket statement that 2013 "will be the last time anyone is allowed to hunt in Botswana" took the hunting industry there somewhat by surprise. That's because seven concession holders have been granted a year's extension for multi-purpose use of their concessions, meaning photo safaris AND hunting will continue this coming year on leases that were expiring with this season.

In a statement issued by the Botswana Wildlife Management Association (BWMA), The Hunting Report learned that hunting leases were extended through 2013 in the following concessions:

CT1: Destination South Safaris, Jeff Rann (jeffrann@yahoo.com)
CT2: Johan Calitz Safaris, Johan Calitz (johan@calitzsafaris.com)
CT3: Chobe Fish Eagle, Duncan Britton (Duncan@chobesafarilodge.com)
NG 42: Nemesis Safaris, Johan Calitz (johan@calitzsafaris.com)
NG 43: Kgori Safaris, Jim Van Rensburg (hunt@kgorisafaris.com)
NG 47: Safaris Botswana Bound, Graeme Pollock (saf.bots@info.bw)
CH 12: Bottle Pan Safaris, Mike Murray (mike@murayranches.co.za)

Debbie Peake of the BWMA says the government has not given them any official statement about the closure of hunting for 2014, and in fact says the government has lead the BWMA to believe that limited hunting of elephant would continue as part of a population management plan.

For now what this means to traveling hunters is that if you have a Botswana elephant hunt booked for 2013, it must be on one of the above concessions or on NG41 where Johan Calitz Safaris has a lease through 2017 or on CH 1/2 (Chobe Enclave) operated by Butler & Holbrow Safaris (peterholbrow@gmail.com; or kelly@gregbutlersafaris.com). Check with the agent or operator handling your hunt arrangements. Otherwise, until the Botswana government officially announces other plans, all hunting on government concessions after 2013 is out of the question. For now it seems that hunting for other species on private ranches should be able to continue. We'll have more details and analysis on this development and what Botswana operators are doing in the upcoming December issue of The Hunting Report. - Barbara Crown, Editor

That's the latest information I have as well. I might email Debbie and see if there are any developments.

Its sad they've got a hard lesson to learn and costly, thats a lot of money leaving their country.

It will be very sad to see this great destination closed to hunting. My 14 day hunt in the Okavango in 1990 was the cream of the crop for me.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jacques.strauss

Botswana Bans Hunting
06 Nov 2012

In a progressive move to protect the country's natural heritage and the tourism industry, he said that the government of Botswana, through the Environment and Wildlife Ministry, would stop issuing hunting licenses as of next year.

**This was coppied from another site**

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PROGRESSIVE? What a chop! (Toyota advert...Boxer in his bosses Hilux herding sheep!)
I recently went to a meeting held by our National Parks on the 'forward Management plan' for Tuli Circle. A neighbouring Botswanan photographic camp had proposed that all hunting be stopped in the Tuli Circle to facilitate a new gate into the area so that 'they' could run photographic safaris in the area! The area is now part of a Trans Frontier Parks initiative. The audacity was astounding! Here's a piss willy photo operation proposing that a neighbouring 'Country' stop revenue earning activities so that they can expand their photo operation!!:wacky:. Their stats show that they have an occupancy of 40% which is just break even by our standards, amounting to 17 people in camp on average daily.. To equal the revenue in the Circle currently earned from just 14 hunt clients a year - the photo / historical areas revenued visits weren't even factored in - they have to put 48000 photo clients through there a year! Firstly they don't have the client capacity and what really got my goat was that they wanted the circle for themselves and were sincerely proposing that Zim give it over to them! :mad:
Well by the end of that meeting, I doubt that it'll ever happen!:nonono:

I have been getting myself in a real bind over on some of the other "Conservation" based forums I follow. All the seemingly open minded, conservation orientated folk that are on these sites are suddenly all for the closing of hunting in botswana. What really gets me going is that the wonderful world of make believe the NEW ECO TOURISTS live in is so fictionally based they actually take it as fact. I was asked to provide true statistics in regards to revenues etc for trophy hunting, fairly easy to answer, just look on the web... When I asked the same about eco tourism (it is no longer just going and taking pictures of animals, see web for new definition) the convoluted answers I got were, to say the least, a load of BS.
The fact of the matter remains, the money is at the barrel of the gun. When it comes to resource utilization, hunting is the most cost effective way to conserve any natural environment. Trophy hunting has by far the lowest impact, why a person could ask, well simply put, for every 100 people taking a photograph of an elephant, that same animal can be hunted by one person to generate the same revenues as the 100 hippie, eco warriors!
Judging by all the bad press that we as hunters are getting, unless we start to really get involved in the useless arguments, we are going to be in a situation where we will not have the places to hunt. I guess that means we will actually have to get out of the bush and respond to the arm chair "conservationist"
I'm going hunting...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ole Bally

PROGRESSIVE?........
I recently went to a meeting held by our National Parks on the 'forward Management plan' for Tuli Circle. A neighbouring Botswanan photographic camp had proposed that all hunting be stopped in the Tuli Circle to facilitate a new gate into the area so that 'they' could run photographic safaris in the area! The area is now part of a Trans Frontier Parks initiative. The audacity was astounding!........ ....

they wanted the circle for themselves and were sincerely proposing that Zim give it over to them! :mad:
....:

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They just wanted in on the redistribution efforts and wanted to offer a new twist. Made sense to them.

Rationalizations are amazing.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Hotfire Hunting Safaris

.............. I was asked to provide true statistics in regards to revenues etc for trophy hunting, fairly easy to answer, just look on the web...
............
I'm going hunting...

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THE NATIONAL PROFILE AND
ECONOMIC IMPACT OF BILTONG HUNTERS IN SOUTH AFRICA
BY: DR. P. VAN DER MERWE AND PROF. DR. M.. SAAYMAN


A Comparison of the Prices of Hunting Tourism
in Southern and Eastern Africa
Vernon R. Booth

Game Ranch Profitability
in Southern Africa
Absa Group Economic Research

Optimizing game production in a new era:
The road to financial success
D Furstenburg
Agricultural Research Council : Range & Forage Institute,
Grootfontein Agricultural Development Institute,

BACKGROUND RESEARCH PAPER:
A STATUS QUO STUDY ON THE PROFESSIONAL AND RECREATIONAL HUNTING INDUSTRY IN SOUTH AFRICA
Prepared for the Panel of Experts appointed by the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism

WILDLIFE STATISTICS 2004 BOTSWANA
Sarah E. A. Kabaija
Environment Statistics Unit
Central Statistics Office
Private Bag 0024, Gaborone

The stats and research are certainly out there. Here are some to throw at them.

I'm going hunting too.