Botswana re-authorizes elephant hunting

This is news that will surely bring back memories of King Emeritus Juan Carlos of Spain, who broke his hip during a controversial hunt in Botswana. The African country Wednesday lifted the ban on elephant hunting.

The ban was introduced in the country of South Africa by President Ian Khama, a fervent environment advocate, in 2014. But the ruling party deputies, the Democratic Party of Botswana (PDB), were forced to cancel, claiming that elephant populations they became uncontrollable in certain areas.

President Mokgweetsi Masisi took office after Khama last April and distanced himself from his predecessor's defense of wildlife policy.

"Botswana has made the decision to lift the suspension of the hunt," said the Ministry of the Environment in a statement in which he had promised to resume the hunt orderly and ethical"

He stated that a review of the cabinet committee had revealed that "the conflicts between humans and elephants have increased in number and intensity and increasingly affect livelihoods. "

botswana It has the largest population of elephants in Africa, with more than 135,000 people moving freely in their parks and open spaces.

According to experts, the number of pachyderms in the country, renowned for its luxury safaris, has almost tripled in the last 30 years and the population could now be around 160,000 people.

Farmers have trouble keeping elephants out of their fields, where they eat crops and they can kill people. The elimination of the ban on hunting may be a strategy welcomed by rural voters before the elections scheduled for October.

Many elephants in Botswana move freely in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The four countries requested that the global ban on elephant ivory trade will be easedbecause of the increasing number of animals in some areas.

"We can not continue to be spectators while others discuss and make decisions about our elephants," Masisi said at a meeting of presidents of these countries this month in Botswana. "The conflict between elephants and the population is growing alongside the growing demand for land, agriculture and settlements," he said.

According to data from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), it is estimated that in the first half of the 20th century more than three million elephants in the area. The total population has decreased in less than a century to reach 13% of these numbers

In the last decade instead The elephant population in Africa has decreased from about 111,000 to 415,000 inhabitants, largely because of the poaching ivory, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, sell at the price of gold in Asia.