Our people demanded re-introduction of trophy hunting – Botswana official

Botswana citizens are the ones who demanded the lifting of a government ban on trophy hunting, a government official has said. 

The country’s permanent secretary in the ministry of environment, natural resources conservation and tourism, Thato Raphaka said the locals made the plea not to wipe out the wildlife. 

“They were saying we want to be seen to be conserving the wildlife that we have. We want to participate, we want to benefit out of that,” he told a diamond conference in Gaborone last Tuesday during a panel discussion on striking a balance between conservation and preservation. 

Raphaka said Botswana had long taken a decision that it is critical to conserve its wildlife.  

“We have been providing the infrastructure to protect the wildlife, we were mindful of the fact as a country, if we were to build tourism, [then] the starting point was to ensure that there is a conservation of the natural resources,” he said. 

“It is for this reason that if you look around, 42% of our land is reserved for wildlife. That 42% is intended to conserve the very natural resources that is wildlife …” 

Meanwhile, Peace Parks Foundation Zambia regional director Andrew Nambota told the same gathering that there is need to strike a balance between conservation and preservation as both human and wildlife populations grow. 

He said conservation will only happen when human beings derive benefit from it. 

“There shouldn’t be seen as passive,” said Nambota. “There must be active participants, they should be involved in decision making.”