Communities Living Near Wildlife in Botswana Marched against the UK’s Anti-hunting Bill
A female engineer advocates for water sustainability, leading a march with a banner highlighting the importance of conserving 31 million PULA from hun.
The protesters delivered a petition to the British High Commission as Botswana prepares to send a delegation to the U.K. to lobby against the bill. The Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill, which goes for a second reading later this month, seeks to ban the importation of legally obtained wildlife trophies from Africa. Trophy hunting is the practice of killing large animals such as elephants, lions and tigers for sport. Hunters often keep the heads or other parts of the animals for display. One of the organizers of the march, Poniso Shamukuni, said if the measure passes, it will negatively impact livelihoods of communities living side-by-side with wildlife in Botswana. The African nation, for example, has the world’s largest elephant population at more than 130,000, and the giant animals are often in conflict with humans.
SOURCE: VOA