By Barbara Crown, Editor
President of Botswana Ian Khama has announced that hunting in Botswana will end in 2014. He first said this during a campaign stop in the Sankoyo and Mababe areas of Botswana at the end of October. (See the
November 1 Email Extra Bulletin I sent out about this.) Speculation was that Khama was politicking at the time, but later he repeated this on November 5 during his
State of the Nation address. At press time in late November, however, an official announcement had not been given to the hunting industry in Botswana. In fact, even as Khama was making these statements, the Botswana government was extending elephant hunting leases for numerous operators through 2013. (See list below.)
I spoke with Debbie Peake of the Botswana Wildlife Management Association (BWMA) right after Khama's statements appeared in the Botswana press. Peake says the public announcement caught the association and its members a bit by surprise in light of the newly extended leases and continuing communications with the Ministry of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism (MEWT) on ways to accommodate hunting beyond 2013.....
