Protecting Botswana’s wildlife: A national responsibility and lessons for SA

Botswana’s approach to wildlife conservation, integrating the defence force in anti-poaching operations and prioritising community inclusion, provides essential lessons for regional cooperation and protecting natural heritage, offering a strategic framework for South Africa’s conservation efforts.

Wildlife conservation has been one of the defining responsibilities of my public life. My commitment to protecting Botswana’s wildlife did not begin when I became president. It developed during my years in the Botswana Defence Force (BDF), where I came to understand that protecting our country’s natural heritage could, in certain circumstances, require the same determination, discipline and sacrifice that we demand when defending our national sovereignty.

As commander of the BDF, I became increasingly concerned about the threat posed by poaching. Our wildlife was not simply being lost; organised poaching was becoming a threat to the security of the country and to an important part of Botswana’s national heritage.

I therefore supported and oversaw the deployment of the BDF in anti-poaching operations. Soldiers were given the responsibility of assisting the relevant authorities in protecting wildlife, particularly in areas where the scale and remoteness of the problem made conventional law enforcement approaches difficult.

This was never intended to turn the military into a wildlife agency. Rather, it was a recognition that the defence force had capabilities – personnel, logistics, communications, mobility and the ability to operate in remote areas – that could make an important contribution to the national effort against organised poaching.

When I subsequently became president of Botswana, I continued to regard wildlife protection as a national priority. The role of the BDF in anti-poaching operations therefore continued.

My position was based on a simple principle: Botswana’s wildlife belongs not only to those of us who are alive today, but also to generations of Batswana who have yet to be born. We have a responsibility to ensure that they inherit a country in which elephants still roam our wilderness, rhinos can once again establish viable populations and our natural landscapes and all wildlife remain an important part of our national identity.

I suspended hunting – all hunting of all species, not just trophy hunting. That suspension was one of the most controversial conservation decisions of my presidency. Trophy hunting – the act of extracting a part of our national heritage for repatriation to (mostly) foreign lands – was the part that attracted the greatest attention.

The hunting ban was introduced as a response to what we regarded as a serious conservation concern and the need to examine whether wildlife populations were being sustainably managed.

Communities living alongside wildlife bear many of the costs from problem animals. They experience crop damage, loss of livestock and, in some circumstances, threats to human life.

At the same time, we cannot allow the legitimate difficulties faced by communities to become an excuse for the disappearance of wildlife.