Africa

Review of

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/28/world/africa/botswana-elephants-poaching.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FBotswana&action=click&contentCollection=world&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection

Botswana’s local natives have accused Elephants Without Borders aerial survey to be greatly exaggerating the number of elephants’ killed by poachers. The government questions the claims of 87 deaths, because the authorities surveyed the national parks and have only found 19 dead elephants, with only 6 killed by poaching. Wildlife professors and scientist admit that there has been poaching in Botswana, but the charity has amplified the amount of deaths in poaching in hopes of steering the government to strengthen their bans of poaching and trophy hunting. In addition to this concern, another problem with Elephants Without Borders is that, they have shown the Botswanan government that Western advocacy groups can influence political opinions, without real evidence. Mr. Chase (Elephant Without Border’s director) has claimed to have “never seen so many dead elephants at once”, but the government calls the charity’s accusation “false and misleading”. On the other side of the debate, Mr. Khama’s brother, Tshekedi Khama has a conflict of interest between Elephants Without Borders policies and the new governments. Tshekedi is the environment minister of Botswana but he is also on the board for the charity group. This shows that Tshekedi supports Elephants Without Borders opinions rather than the opinion of the people of Botswana.

Dr. Masunga (formerly worked at Botswana’s national parks department) was very clear in saying that poaching levels could be very high in the north of the country and the charity might be right. Mr. Khama’s term expired in April, the new president Mokgweetsi Masisi, has opened back the debates on the ban, seeking to win back rural voters for next year’s national elections.

I have been researching poaching African Elephants since 5th grade and the cruelty that the poachers have shown taught me that some people are desperate to get money no matter how cruel or horrific the act is. Since I learned about this endangerment of these animals, I have wanted to help them, which also led me to want to become a veterinarian. Poaching is a problem that has been a global predicament for a very long time. Although many countries have put in place non-poaching laws (Such as China), to prevent poachers from killing elephants, it hasn’t seemed to work. I think articles like this one will help more people be aware of this problem and ultimately prevent poaching for a long time. The social connection that I noticed in the article is the conflicts between the natives of Botswana and Elephants Without Borders group. The government of Botswana believes that the charity group exaggerated the number of elephants poached in Botswana because they wanted to sway the government to improve security of the elephants. Many locals have become angry because they believe Botswana to be a haven for elephants, which means that it was ridiculous to say that it was possible to have mass poaching. The citizens of Botswana have felt offended by the allegations that Elephants Without Borders have made against Botswana, because they feel like they have already done enough to protect the elephants. A political connection I found was the difference between the government from when President Khama was in term and when President Mokgweetsi Masisi is in term now. The new president, Mokgweetsi Masisi, has shown that he does not care as much about the poaching. He has dismissed the shoot – to – kill policy for poachers and lessened the amount of military in these parks. The government has said that the charity group has made false accusations about the number of elephant’s dead by poaching. The contrast of these governments compares to the contrast of the US Government. US government has changed dramatically with Trump as president rather than Obama. Trump has changed the immigrant policies severely. The citizens of America have had many conflicting opinions about this topic like how the Elephants without Borders has had conflicting opinions with the new government on how to prevent poaching in Botswana. Botswana’s government environmental policies have also been changed drastically since President Masisi has been elected. Re-opening the policies on the banning of trophy hunting has. angered environmentalist’s groups such as Elephants Without Borders. The new president has shown that he does not care as much about the poaching, just so he can get rural voters for his next election. When President Khama was in office, the charity group supported President Khama because they felt like he strongly believed that African Elephants should have lots of safety to deplete poaching. The government and the people of Botswana believe that this group was hurting their image about protecting elephants for an over-exaggeration which caused exasperation with western strong influence in expanding countries.