Botswana’s hunting ban: Bushmen starve, trophy hunters carry on - Survival International:
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Botswana’s President Khama has banned all hunting nationwide, even for Bushmen who hunt to feed their families – but an exception is being made for trophy hunters paying up to $8,000 to hunt giraffes and zebras.
Wealthy tourists are being invited to travel to Botswana to hunt big game on private ranches that have been exempted from the ban. But Bushmen from Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve, who have hunted with spears, bows and arrows for millennia, are being arrested, beaten and jailed for subsistence hunting.
The ban openly flouts Botswana’s landmark high court ruling in 2006, which upheld the Bushmen’s right to hunt on their ancestral land in the reserve.
In February President Khama was an honoured guest at a global anti-poaching conference in London, alongside Prince Charles and Prince William. The initiative resulted in the launch of Prince William’s United for Wildlife, drawing together seven big conservation organizations, including US-based Conservation International (CI). President Khama is a CI board member.
Bushmen
hunting with spear, for food. 'You talk to him and look into his eyes.
And then he knows he must give you his strength so your children can
live.’
© Philippe Clotuche/Survival
