Southern African Countries Fight U.K. Anti-hunting Bill

Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe have united against a proposed UK bill that seeks to ban the importation of wildlife trophies from Africa. The Labour Party introduced the bill in October, shortly after the party’s Keir Starmer took over as prime minister. The party also aims to eliminate hunting in the United Kingdom within five years.

With a second reading of the bill to happen in January, the six African countries now seek a meeting with UK government officials to discuss a way forward. With Europe being the second-highest importer of wildlife trophies, the countries have said passing the bill would threaten livelihoods, increase human-wildlife conflicts, and lead to an unsustainable increase in wildlife populations, placing additional strain on the region’s ecological carrying capacity.

Critics of trophy hunting warn that the practice disrupts animal populations and risks pushing endangered species closer to extinction. Despite generating significant income—Botswana earned $3 million in 2023 from international hunters paying up to $50,000 per elephant—trophy hunting is criticized for favouring the wealthy white elite while providing limited benefits to local communities. It reflects the colonial era that saw Africa’s elephant population drop from 20 million pre-colonialism to around a million in the 1970s. The overrepresentation of White people in the sector also mirrors the colonial era, where Africans hunting game, sometimes for medicinal use, was seen as savagery, but Europeans doing it for sport was seen as civilized. Moreover, its revenue is deemed unsustainable compared to eco-tourism, which offers ongoing financial opportunities; you can only kill an animal once, after all.

Sources:

https://www.voanews.com/a/southern-african-countries-in-fresh-bid-to-fight-uk-anti-hunting-bill/7878054.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

https://www.voanews.com/a/botswana-communities-march-against-uk-s-anti-hunting-bill/7524648.html

https://www.voanews.com/a/southern-african-nations-wary-as-uk-s-labor-party-commits-to-hunting-trophy-ban/7653350.html

https://www.downtoearth.org.in/africa/botswana-and-the-europeans-recently-had-a-spat-regarding-elephants-what-was-it-all-about

https://zimbabweland.wordpress.com/2022/04/11/the-trouble-with-elephants-why-limits-on-culling-are-bad-for-conversation

https://metro.co.uk/2024/03/21/botswana-threatens-send-10-000-elephants-hyde-park-trophy-hunting-row-20502931

https://africageographic.com/stories/trophy-hunting-in-botswanas-ng13-we-follow-the-money

https://www.humanesociety.org/belgium-import-trophy-hunting-endangered-species

Tourism creates toxic dependency

https://www.reuters.com/article/business/on-our-knees-kenyas-tourism-revenue-collapses-idUSKBN2401UC/

https://afripoli.org/consuming-africa-the-impact-of-tourism-on-local-african-economies

Report on The Myth of Trophy Hunting as Conservation by Elliott Morley.

https://www.saveafricananimals.org/attachments/article/136/The_%20Myth_of_Trophy_Hunting_as_Conservation.pdf