Botswana mulls sending 20k elephants to Germany

[Kyng]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/a...unting-row

Botswana’s president has threatened to send 20,000 elephants to Germany amid a dispute over the import of hunting trophies.

Earlier this year Germany’s environment ministry raised the possibility of stricter limits on the import of hunting trophies over poaching concerns. But a ban on the import of hunting trophies would only impoverish Botswanans, Mokgweetsi Masisi told German daily Bild.

The African leader argued that conservation efforts have led to an explosion in the number of elephants and that hunting is an important means to keep them in check. Botswana banned trophy hunting in 2014 but lifted the restrictions in 2019 under pressure from local communities. The country now issues annual hunting quotas.

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I mean... I can kind of see why Botswana's president feels hard done by here - and I won't deny that the increased elephant population will have created problems. But I think it's pretty obvious that a mass export of elephants to Germany is not a solution: after all, they're completely alien to the ecosystem there.

So, what might be a better solution?