Botswana banning trophy hunting

This video is called Botswana Wildlife Photography Expeditions.

From Wildlife Extra:

Botswana to ban trophy hunting

President Khama of Botswana has announced that Botswana will ban trophy hunting by 2014

November 2012. In his 2012 State of the Nation Address, the President of Botswana, Lt. Gen. Ian Khama, announced that Botswana will stop commercial hunting of wildlife in public areas from 2014. Wildlife Extra, and no doubt thousands of others, applaud President Khama and, as a result, we encourage as many people to visit Botswana as possible.

Part of the State of the Nation address, given on 5th November 2012, stated: “Of additional concern is the rise in cross border and domestic poaching incidents and trafficking of live predators, which are the subject of our new and evolving National Anti-Poaching Strategy. At the same time we have reached the decision to stop the commercial hunting of wildlife in public areas from 2014 as the shooting of wild game purely for sport and trophies is no longer compatible with our commitment to preserve local fauna as a national treasure, which should be treated as such.”

Predictably, many hunting outfits and hunters are up in arms, and many of them seem to think, (from studying their blogs etc) that some hunting will continue, especially for elephant as they are so numerous. They also believe that it will be a dark day for wildlife as poaching will take over and wipe out much of the game. Reading between the lines, the statement above says that hunting will be banned in ‘public areas’, which we assume includes the Okavango Delta, Chobe & Kalahari National Parks etc.

Look at Botswana for your next holiday

Wildlife Extra praisies this initiative, and wants to encourage people to visit Botswana. If you are interested, visit the Botswana Tourist Board, Steppes Travel for a selection of safaris to Botswana, or the Botswana Tourist Board list of tour operators in Botswana.

Read Ian Michler’s article on Botswana’s hunting ban

As a photojournalist, Ian writes predominantly for Africa Geographic and Africa Birds & Birding, two of the continent’s leading nature-based magazines. His popular monthly column in Africa Geographic explores topics such as conservation, wildlife management and travel.

Botswana Kills Trophy Hunting – Ian Michler reflects