Poor community members in trophy hunting areas earn less than one Pula each for every P1 million profit made by rich expedition operators who buy elephant quotas from them for cheap and sell them to international trophy hunters for top dollar – it has emerged.
An undercover field investigation by South African researcher Dr. Adam Cruise which spanned most of the range of elephants in Botswana revealed that community members received less than BWP 2 (USD 0,17) per individual in 2015. Cruise says seven years later, the situation has not improved.
The report confirms earlier investigations by the Sunday Standard that elephant trophy hunting is shifting massive wealth from communities to big businessmen some with alleged political connections. Sunday Standard investigations revealed that elephant trophy hunting shifted an estimated P200 million from poor communities to rich tourism investors in the past two years.
Elephant trophy hunting was supposed to ensure the flow of revenue from international hunting to poor local communities, however most of the money is lining pockets of rich investors among them local busines magnate Derek Brink and the rich Kader family who are whispered to have powerful political connections.
Dr Cruise’s investigation revealed that, “the financial benefits and employment opportunities for community members in CBNRMs where trophy hunting is the only or dominant activity is negligible to nothing…Income generated for Botswana’s CBNRMs in 2015, for example, revealed that community members received less than BWP 2 (USD 0,17) per individual for that year.” He said the situation has not improved seven years later. “All community members interviewed during this investigation stated that they receive little to no direct income from trophy hunting.” The report states that the only benefits from “trophy hunting received for the 25 villages within CBNRMs visited during this investigation was the occasional handing out of meat from a trophy hunted elephant, the supposed purchase of a vehicle for the community trust, wages for a handful of trust staff, a fence for a borehole, the possible future construction of a tuck-shop and an upgrade of an airstrip.”
The Sunday Standard crunched the numbers, and the result was disturbing. For example, Botswana issued licenses to hunt 294 elephants during the opening of this year’s hunting season in April. Investigations have revealed that one of the expedition hunters, Old Man’s Pan Pty (Ltd) owned by business mogul Derek Brink strong armed an Okavango Delta based community trust to award them an elephant hunting quota at less than a third of the international going rate.
Sunday Standard investigations have revealed that, while Brink bought hunting quotas from Tcheku Community Trust for P 200 000 an elephant, international trophy hunters pay more up to P600 000 to kill a single elephant in Botswana.
The Sunday Standard can reveal that a professional Trophy hunter, Leon Kachelhoffer paid $50, 000 (about P620 000 at the current exchange rate) to kill one of Botswana’s biggest tuskers earlier this year.
Assuming communities sold their quotas of 294 elephants for P200 000 each, they made P 59 million while expedition operators on the other hand made about P150 million selling the elephants to international trophy hunters at an estimated P500 000 per elephant. This means an estimated P100 million was shifted from poor communities to rich investors through elephant trophy hunting in 2022.
In 2021, Botswana issued licenses to hunt 287 elephants. The minister of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Philda Kereng, told parliament that Botswana earned USD$ 2,7 million (about P33 million) from elephant hunting for the year. Big investors however made much more. Assuming that they sold each elephant for P500 000, it means they made about P145 million which is more than 400% what communities made. This means elephant trophy hunting shifted an estimated P100 million plus from poor communities to rich hunting safari investors in 2021.
