By Ian Michler - Conservation Action Trust After Barack Obama came Donald Trump, a bigoted populist prone to crass outpourings and some peculiar legislative ideas. His time in office has reminded the world how prone humans are to gullibility and acts of shameful...
Policy based on myths: Botswana brings back trophy hunting
By Ross Harvey – Independent Economist; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town - Conservation Action Trust Botswana has now committed to a policy built on myths, while the rest of the world takes stock of the implications ecological crisis. Botswana’s Ministry of...
To save the African elephant, focus must turn to poverty and corruption
By Colin Beale Senior Lecturer in Ecology, University of York and Severin Hauenstein PhD Candidate in Ecology and Conservation, Freiburg University - The Conversation African elephants are threatened with extinction. With numbers shrinking by a third in just...
Botswana’s elephants: myths vs facts
By Ross Harvey – Independent Economist; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town Botswana president, Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, recently hosted a summit in Kasane for five southern African heads of state to forge a common regional elephant conservation policy. Since Masisi...
Elephants reduced to a political football as Botswana brings back hunting
By Ross Harvey - Independent Economist; PhD Candidate, University of Cape Town (The Conversation) Botswana has reinstated trophy hunting after a 5-year moratorium on the practice. In the wake of evidently declining wildlife numbers, former...
Botswana lifts ban on elephant hunting
By Dr. Louise de Waal – Conservation Action Trust The Botswanan government announced yesterday that it was “lifting the hunting suspension in an orderly and ethical manner” – a decision that seemed inevitable, but nevertheless is an enormous blow for Botswana’s...
The Importance of Being-Elephant
By Adam Cruise – PhD candidate: Stellenbosch University, South Africa Any wild animal, but elephants in particular, who are removed from their expansive natural environment and placed into a sub-optimal area are done a great injustice. A real example of such...
More confusion over the fate of Botswana’s elephants
By Dr Louise de Waal - Conservation Action Trust President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana categorically denies that his government would ever cull elephants, contradicting the Parliamentary Report proposing culling.However, Minister of Environment and...
Trophy hunting in Africa: the case for viable, sustainable alternatives
By Muchazondida Mkono Research Fellow (Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow), Business School, The University of Queensland - The Conversation For decades, the public has been fed the myth that trophy hunting is absolutely necessary for sustainable...
Elephants pay the price for politics
By PETER FABRICIUS - ISS Today (Institute for Security Studies) Are Southern African governments allowing resentment against perceived Western finger-wagging to cloud their judgement? If Botswana’s elephants could sniff the political atmosphere in the country, they...