Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany

RobotToaster@mander.xyz to Not The Onion@lemmy.world – 197 points – Botswana threatens to send 20,000 elephants to Germany
bbc.com

cross-posted from: https://feddit.uk/post/10012136

Earlier this year, Germany's environment ministry suggested there should be stricter limits on importing trophies from hunting animals.

Botswana's President Mokgweetsi Masisi told German media this would only impoverish people in his country.

He said elephant numbers had exploded as a result of conservation efforts, and hunting helped keep them in check.

Germans should "live together with the animals, in the way you are trying to tell us to", Mr Masisi told German newspaper Bild. "This is no joke."

Botswana is home to about a third of the world's elephant population - over 130,000 - more than it has space for.

Herds were causing damage to property, eating crops and trampling residents, Mr Masisi said.

Botswana has previously given 8,000 elephants to neighbouring Angola, and has offered hundreds more to Mozambique, as a means of bringing the population down.

"We would like to offer such a gift to Germany," Mr Masisi said, adding that he would not take no for an answer.

Botswana's Wildlife Minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu last month threatened to send 10,000 elephants to London's Hyde Park so British people could "have a taste of living alongside" them.

In March, UK MPs voted to support a ban on importing hunting trophies, but the legislation has further scrutiny to pass before becoming law.

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"there are too many elephants" was not on my 2024 bingo

There are too many elephants in Botswana, not worldwide.

I don't think we actually have "too many elephants" but I imagine they would be very difficult to live around.

yeah, but "too many in Botswana" isn't that difficult to believe.

Simple solution:

  • Send the elephants to the uk
  • Sunak pays to have them sent on to Rwanda.

Botswana has fewer elephants.
Sunak can claim to have deported 20000 imaphants.
Rwanda gets a truckload of money from the UK.

Right wing german yellow press printed: "Africa-State threatens to send 20000 elephants TO GERMANY", probably because their audience doesn't know what a Botswana is.

Iz zhat were zhe bots are caming from?

This is a problem of left-wing Germany trying to lecture African countries in a colonial way.

The new legislation isn't even about elephants. Hunting trophy bans are the wrong lever for dealing with megafauna ecology anyway - I know to little about Botswana's biogeography, but if colonial conservationism is the problem here, then it could be benificial to talk about the issue with the SADC or another format for example to have better leverage while preserving natural resources.

The local radio station jokingly asked people to "adopt an elephant".

One boy wanted to have an elephant and asked for tips how to hide it from his parents, as they would not approve, and one guy asked for an elephant with a shoulder height of 45cm max, because that is the biggest pet size he is allowed to keep in his rental flat...

Send them to Australia. Similar climate, and the kangaroos will shit a brick.

Until they unite forces and attack the aussies. Cue another animals vs. Australians war

I mean, we shouldn't be hunting them at all. They are a very intelligent species that we should study more and not just kill because they are big.

As mentioned in the article, the numbers of elephants in botswana are growing. And the large number of elephants are causing problems with the human population. You need to do something with the situation.

Sure, but why would the UK be blamed for it? I don't like the UK for many reasons, but blaming it for the elephant population in some other country is ridiculous.

And you think killing a highly intelligent animal is the only solution or do you just have a boner for killing innocent animals?

Botswana has a point. If a German went to Sweden to hunt moose and brought back the head, nobody would flinch.

If hunting is cruel ban import of moose products first and see how the debate goes.

German Green Party is extremely fundamentalist and they think they are saving the world by lecturing African countries how to run their country.

And getting rid of nuclear, bunch of idiots

Lol, the conservatives got rid of nuclear.

“The position of the German government is clear: nuclear power is not green. Nor is it sustainable,” Steffi Lemke, Germany’s Federal Minister for the Environment and Consumer Protection and a Green Party member, told CNN.

Did I say they were pro nuclear? No.

Did the conservatives kill german nuclear? Yes.

Is it too late now to get nuclear working again? Also yes.

Is it a shame nuclear was killed off early? Absolutely.

Did the conservatives kill renewables earlier so Germans had to rely on coal and gas for too long? Correct.

My "signature" for this topic (German unfortunately):

Abschließend will ich dem Thema anfügen, dass wir für mehr als ein Jahrzent eine Politikerin im höchsten politischen Amt hatten, die schon vor dem Antritt der Position überzeugt war, etwas gegen den Klimawandel tun zu müssen und dann fast nichts erreicht hat{pdf} und selbst unzufrieden ist!

I apologize, I can't remember where I heard my information but apparently it was wrong. I just know the Greens in Canada are anti nuclear too. Its a shame we have so many uneducated politicians

Imagine believing nuclear energy is green. Idiot.

If it isn't green, why is it glowing green in cartoons and comics?

Imagine thinking it's not a lot better than coal.

Imagine believing that it's an alternative.

Why is Germany now buying electricity from France and their Nuclear fleet?

The electricity trade between France and Germany was almost in balance in 2023, +1.2TWh in favour of France. It's not much compared with the trade balance of +13.3TWh with the United Kingdom, which nevertheless uses nuclear energy extensively, and this, for equivalent volumes.

That's a very weak point.

A foreign country doesn't want to import animals, and you get mad at them? Get your domestic shit together!

That's like saying that NYC resents Argentina for not taking any of its city rats.

No. It would be if Argentina told NYC that putting out rat traps is cruel and Argentina will block important NYC trade because of this.

NYC would then rightfully ask Argentina if they would like some of their fucking rats because there sure are a lot of them and they provide very little to the NYC economy outside of selling rat traps.

It's not a country not wanting to, it's the government. Clearly Germans do want to go there, kill an elephant and take a trophy, if not the whole ban is pointless

Nice...avoid the ban on importing trophies, hunt them locally instead!

Mr Masisi told German newspaper Bild. "This is no joke."

Ironic, considering that the Bild very much is a joke

If Taylor Swift got one then everyone else would too