Botswana Threatens to Send 20,000 Elephants to Germany Over Hunting Trophy Dispute

A baby elephant stands in a savannah with its herd. Credit: Picryl

Botswana’s president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, threatened on April 2, 2024 to send 20,000 elephants to Berlin in response to a proposal by Germany’s environmental ministry to ban the import of hunting trophies.

Currently, writes CBS News, 40 percent of Botswana is home to roughly 130,000 elephants, with 6,000 new calves born yearly. According to the World Wildlife Fund, Botswana’s elephant population has remained relatively stable since 2014, but globally, notes the IUCN Red List, African Savannah Elephants are still considered endangered and African Forest Elephants are considered critically endangered. Despite those facts, CBS News notes that in 2019 Botswana lifted its 2014 ban on elephant hunting, citing increases in human-wildlife conflict. Elephants were roaming into human settlements and trampling crops, homes, and people.

The Week reports that Germany is one of the world’s largest importers of hunting trophies, and Botswana claims that the proposed ban could seriously harm its economy. Botswana also argues that legalized hunting is necessary to control the elephant population and limit the damage it causes to humans. Legalized hunting would also ensure that the population is not overhunted. 

According to an article in Politico, Germany’s proposal has led to Botswana accusing it of neocolonialist behaviour. President Masisi stated that it is “very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion about our affairs in Botswana,” and that Germany shouldn’t use its economic power to try to dictate Botswana’s internal affairs. These allegations stem from Germany’s colonial past. Alongside other European countries, Germany participated in the “Scramble for Africa,” the dividing up of Africa by the major European colonial powers of the late 19th and early 20th century. Though Germany was forced to give up its colonies in the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, its colonial legacy is not fully settled.

Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, which made the proposal, stated that they have not been contacted directly by Botswana but are open to collaboration and an invitation to inspect Botswana’s wildlife protection. Although transportation issues make an actual transfer of 20,000 elephants from Botswana to Germany unlikely, this episode highlights the continuing conflicts between environmentalists in the West and developing economies in the Global South.