Letter to President Duma Boko
calling for changes in Botswana’s wildlife management
Signed by many Botswanan and international organisations and individuals, this letter calls on President Boko to bring in sustainable conservation strategies and ban the hunting of elephants and other species for trophies.
The letter was delivered to the President’s office by Oaitse Nawa, founder of Elephants Protection Society.
30 June 2025
Dear President Boko,
We write to you on behalf of both Batswana and international stakeholders to call for your leadership in addressing human-elephant conflict through solutions that deliver equitable, lasting benefits to local communities and help restore Botswana’s position as Africa’s leading ecotourism and conservation destination.
To achieve this, we must acknowledge that it is becoming increasingly difficult to position Botswana as a paragon of sustainable tourism while trophy hunting remains a dominant and visible form of wildlife utilization. Globally, hunting as tourism is increasingly scrutinized and frowned upon, and its continued prominence undermines our efforts to attract ethical, conservation-minded travellers and investors.
As home to a third of all remaining African elephants, Botswana was once admired as the world’s last safe haven for their kind. Thanks to the country’s anti-poaching and wildlife protection measures, their numbers have remained stable at approximately 130,000 elephants for the past 15 years. However, with rising human populations, the competition for land and resources between people and elephants has markedly increased, inevitably resulting in conflict. When trophy hunting is added to the mix, elephants become even more aggressive and the cycle of harm escalates, with casualties on both sides.
Undermining conservation
Despite claims made by the industry, trophy hunting offers no measurable benefit to conservation. On the contrary, it inflicts lasting, multi-generational harm on the very species it targets, often those already facing the threat of local extinction. The removal of key individuals, particularly large, mature animals, can destabilize social structures, disrupt reproduction, and undermine population resilience. In the case of elephants – a keystone species – such disruptions extend far beyond the herd, with profound consequences for the broader ecosystem they help shape and sustain.
Today we know much more about the critical role played by elephant elders in social cohesion and the transmission of vast stores of knowledge and skills from one generation to the next. When a matriarch is killed, that knowledge and teaching is lost forever, weakening the herd’s chances for success and survival.[i] The removal of older male elephants by hunters shatters the stability of bachelor groups, increasing aggression in young males left without the guidance, survival skills, and behavioural knowledge they would have learned from the older bulls.[ii] But instead of respecting the conservation need to save elders, hunters continue to target mature elephants, including ‘big tuskers’ who are facing extinction across the continent. Yet it’s these magnificent mature elephants who are a prime draw for tourists to Botswana. They should be prized as one of Botswana’s most valuable and valued natural resources, rather than sold to the highest bidder to be killed for their body parts.[iii]
In Botswana, trophy hunting is compounding the threats already facing the country’s elephant population by increasing pressure on mature bull elephants – animals that have already been heavily targeted and depleted by poaching. [iv] By driving demand for large tuskers and normalizing the killing of bulls, hunting not only reduces the number of remaining mature males but also complicates enforcement efforts by providing cover for illegal killing and illegal wildlife trade.[v] This blurring of lines between legal and illegal killing undermines conservation efforts, fuels further poaching activity, and risks reversing the hard-won gains Botswana has made in protecting its elephants.
The hunting benefits myth
Trophy hunting has done little to improve rural livelihoods.[vi] Since the industry operates its finances in secrecy, its claims about benefits to communities and revenue-sharing are unsubstantiated and open to question. The industry is rife with corruption, mismanagement, lack of accountability, abuse of quotas, unethical hunting practices, and unpaid revenue owing to communities.[vii] The audit of one hunting company showed the huge profits it made at the expense of the trust.[viii]
With many communities finding themselves no better off from trophy hunting, and many voices protesting the inequities and indignity of their treatment – such as being thrown scraps of meat from elephant hunts, while funds that are owed to them are pocketed by hunting operators and corrupt middlemen – there is a pressing need for reform that brings them genuine opportunities and engagement as stakeholders.[ix] The old exploitative models have failed them.
A better future
We know that a live elephant can generate far more revenue across its lifetime from photographic tourism than from a single fee paid to end its life. With trophy hunting on the decline – and over-hunted areas facing depletion and local extirpations of wildlife – it’s time to consign it to history along with past colonial practices, and replace it with non-lethal alternatives that genuinely protect wildlife while putting income generated from it in the hands of Batswana. Private and public investment in Botswana’s conservation programme and tourism sector will thrive in the absence of trophy hunting, bringing employment and wealth-building opportunities for rural populations.
We hope you will agree that the future of Botswana’s wildlife management should not be determined by the interests of a small but powerful hunting elite. The way forward lies in aligning with global conservation values, promoting non-consumptive tourism, and reaffirming Botswana’s leadership in wildlife protection, not in preserving outdated models that no longer serve its people, economy, or wildlife.
As the climate and biodiversity crises threaten species survival worldwide, it is our shared responsibility to protect wildlife and preserve natural habitats. The brutal destruction of wild animals for sport has no part to play in this.
Mr President, we recall your past statements against trophy hunting and the hope they inspired. However, this year’s elephant hunting quota was the highest ever at 410 elephants. We hope you will reconsider your support for this activity that brings so much harm to your country and will move to ban the hunting of elephants and other species for trophies in 2026.
Such a move would restore Botswana’s international reputation, strengthen its economy, and honour its responsibility as custodian of one of Africa’s most iconic species.
Sincerely,
The undersigned:
Action for Elephants UK
Denise Dresner, Project Lead
Amboseli Trust for Elephants
Phyllis C. Lee, Director of Science
Born Free Foundation
Will Travers OBE, Co-founder and Executive President
Ecoexist (Botswana)
Amanda Stronza, Co-founder
Ecoflix Foundation
David Casselman, Founder and CEO
Co-Founder, Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary
Elephants Protection Society (Botswana)
Oaitse Nawa, Founder
EMS Foundation
Michele Pickover, Executive Director
Endangered Wildlife Investigations
Adam Cruise, Director
FOUR PAWS South Africa
Fiona Miles, Director
Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park, UK
Minister for Overseas Territories, Commonwealth, Energy, Climate
& Environment at the FCDO 2022-23
Gondwana Tours & Safaris (Botswana)
Steffi Presske, Senior Travel Consultant/CEO
Humane World for Animals UK
Nick Jones, Executive Director
Invent Africa (Botswana)
Ian Michler, Director
Lehikeng Trust – Capacity Building & Development (Botswana)
Beauty Bogwasi, CEO
Pro Elephant Network (PREN)
All members, including:
Prof. David Bilchitz
Director Animal Law Reform, South Africa
Lenin Chisaira
Founder, Advocates 4 Earth–Green Law Connect, Zimbabwe
Nomusa Dube
Founder, Zimbabwe Elephant Foundation
Stefania Falcon
Co-Director, Green Group Simonstown
Founder, Future 4 Wildlife Africa, South Africa
Daniela Freyer
Co-Founder, Pro Wildlife, Germany
Dr Toni Frohoff
Ethologist and Behavioral Biologist
Founder, TerraMar Research, USA
Dr Marion E. Garai
Ethologist, Elephant Behavior Specialist
Director Elephant Reintegration Trust, South Africa
Dr Ross Harvey
Environmental Economist, South Africa
Heike Henderson-Altenstein
Co-Founder, Future for Elephants e.V., Germany
Iris Ho
Elephant Policy Consultant & Head of Campaigns and Policy,
Pan African Sanctuary Alliance (PASA)
Dr Mark Jones
Veterinarian; Head of Policy, Born Free Foundation, UK
Dr Paula Kahumbu
WildlifeDirect, Kenya
Jim Karani
Advocate, Lawyers for Animal Protection in Africa, Kenya
Dr Winnie Kiiru
Founder, Conservation Kenya, Kenya
Kahindi Lekalhaile
Africa Network for Animal Welfare, Kenya
Dr Smaragda Louw
Director, Ban Animal Trading, South Africa
Dr Cynthia Moss
Director, Amboseli Trust for Elephants, Kenya
Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South
Africa (WAPFSA)
Prof. Dan Wylie
Rhodes University, South Africa
Quihaba Pictures (Botswana)
Isaac Leano Marumo, Founder & Director
Manager, Elephants Protection Society
Ian Redmond OBE
Chairman, Ape Alliance
Chairman, The Gorilla Organization
Head of Conservation, Ecoflix
Ambassador for the UN’s Convention on Migratory Species 2010-2024
Rettet die Elefanten Afrikas e.V.
Thomas Töpfer, CEO
Sheldrick Wildlife Trust UK
Rob Brandford, Executive Director
Wildlife & Conservation Foundation
Eduardo Goncalves, Founder
[i] When the elders fall silent — how the loss of elephant matriarchs fractures a society
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-05-25-elephants-how-the-loss-of-matriarchs-fractures-a-society/
[ii] Older Male Elephants Help Keep Younger Males Calm
https://www.nathab.com/blog/older-male-elephants-keep-younger-males-calm
[iii] Trophy hunting: conservation impacts and animal welfare concerns
https://www.awselva.org/journal/2023/05/trophy-hunting-conservation-impacts-and-animal-welfare-concerns
[iv] Between October 2023 and February 2024, at least 56 poached elephant carcasses were discovered in northern Botswana (a small fraction of the total elephant range), with a further 19 poached carcasses found in an aerial survey in July 2024, bringing the total to 105 since October 2023. allAfrica.com+1ATC News by Prof. Dr. Wolfgang H. Thome+1
[v] The industry is implicated in practices known as ‘pseudo-hunting’, in which trophy hunts serve as a cover for acquiring and exporting body parts of protected species for illegal trade. The connection between rhinoceros trophy hunting and the illegal global trade in rhino horn is particularly well-documented for South Africa (https://www.traffic.org/publications/reports/the-south-africa-viet-nam-rhino-horn-trade-nexus/?utm_source=chatgpt.com)
[vi] Botswana’s wildlife management fails communities – report
‘The existing conservation practices and paradigms of CBNRM and trophy hunting are outdated, unworkable and unethical. They undermine public trust in conservation, contribute to social inequality, ignore animal welfare and sentience and heap misery and suffering on animal societies. There are workable alternative ethical practices but there has to be the political will to implement them.’
https://www.conservationaction.co.za/botswanas-wildlife-management-fails-communities-report/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
[vii] An in-depth 2022 Investigation into trophy hunting African elephants in Botswana’s Community-Based Natural Resource Management areas concluded that ‘trophy hunting failed to provide tangible financial benefits to local communities, did not assist with the conservation of wildlife populations and did not mitigate elephant-conflict incidences. This investigation showed that trophy hunting continued to impoverish local communities, cause the decline in wild species and heighten human-elephant conflict situations’. https://www.africanelephantjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Botswana-Report.pdf
This report builds on a 2016 review that found most CBNRMs were either not functioning at all or on the verge of collapse due to poor management, corruption and other factors. Poverty levels in CBNRMs were found to be the highest in the country – 27% in comparison to 19.3% nationally. In 2015 the income generated came to $0.17 a person, which remained the case in 2022.
[viii] The Old Man’s Pan Pty Ltd pocketed large profits while depriving the community trust of its rightful share. Over the course of his 5-year exclusive deal with Tcheku Community Trust, company co-owner Leon Kachelhoffer stood to profit $1.6 million
https://africageographic.com/stories/trophy-hunting-in-botswanas-ng13-we-follow-the-money/. In Sept 2024 Tcheku Trust ended its MOA with the company – https://www.ngamitimes.co.bw/court-grants-tcheku-trust-right-to-use-hunting-quota/
[ix] In one 2025 case, a villager in Tubu trust was denied her rights to have a campsite on her mother’s land, and the lease was given instead to a hunting company to hunt elephants and provide the community with meat. ‘The community had hoped to engage in photographic tourism on their land to make a living from those natural resources, but it was taken from them and given to an individual so that he could donate elephant meat to the communities. That trust needs their photographic lease to start helping themselves—not just a chunk of elephant meat.’
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2131968983934172/?s=single_unit&__cft__[0]=AZWb-Vh3V7AThJ7k5vsOQp6XRF1aml8v2yEnqHCGTef2jKH9GJ7GiJiTb8IuOAlLUIAiOc4OayGXcp3HNkQ7_m9dd4qm7SXqrbb8f-T2BTOIAJ04c9jQyg5HmQYAtv3nc3ZYx-W0hdI4uRPpl5Rr2WBXPXBRA0HAQgFyHjiU8gTu6dgpldH2bGJm8SlVekj0YZFEyDE-AyzJ5iIVq1AQYrRG&__tn__=H-R