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Elephant meat is common in some wildlife-rich communities, particularly when meat from legal hunts is distributed locally, but it is not an everyday staple. <\/p>\n
Botswana also tightly regulates game meat, and its legal possession generally depends on proving it came from a lawful hunt.<\/p>\n
The decision has reignited a long-running and often heated debate in Botswana over how the country manages its huge elephant population.<\/p>\n
Botswana has more than 130,000 elephants and communities living alongside them have long complained about animals destroying crops, damaging property and sometimes killing people. <\/p>\n
The government has defended regulated hunting as one way of managing the elephant population and human-wildlife conflict while generating income for communities.<\/p>\n
The country banned trophy hunting in 2014 under former President Ian Khama but lifted the restrictions five years later under his successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi.<\/p>\n
Hunting has continued under President Duma Boko, who defeated Masisi in elections in 2024.<\/p>\n
The government says proceeds from hunting supports conservation and local development. <\/p>\n
Minister of Environment and Tourism Wynter Mmolotsi told parliament last year that special elephant quotas raised 15.6m pula ($1.1m; \u00a3820,000) in 2025 for projects in areas where elephants are found.<\/p>\n
But conservation organisations have questioned whether the level of hunting is sustainable.<\/p>\n
Supporters of Botswana’s hunting policy, however, argue that international criticism often overlooks the costs borne by rural communities living alongside one of the world’s biggest concentrations of elephants.<\/p>\n
They say elephants destroy crops and infrastructure and pose a danger to people, particularly as their range increasingly overlaps with farms and settlements.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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