Botswana threatens to donate 20 thousand elephants to Germany due to trophy ban

Botswana President Mokgweetsi Masisi has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany after the German government announced its intention to introduce stricter restrictions on the import of hunting trophies.

According to the Botswana leader, if European politicians are good at wildlife issues, they should show how to live with elephants without hunting.

According to authorities, more than 130 thousand elephants live in Botswana. Recently, eight thousand animals were transferred to Angola.

The Masisi government believes that the ban could affect not only their government coffers, but also the game reserves that provide conservation and control of wildlife populations, as well as the general population of Botswana.

Botswana’s wildlife minister, Dumezwani Mthimkhulu, last month threatened to send 10,000 elephants to London’s Hyde Park to give Britons a taste of life alongside the animals, he said. This comes after British MPs voted in March to ban the import of hunting trophies. The document has not yet been finalized, but the commitment was included in the Conservative program for the 2019 general election.

Botswana, like other African countries, annually organizes an international auction for elephant hunting licenses. The number of licenses for shooting elephants reaches several hundred. The price of each of them is about 40 thousand dollars.