The EMS Foundation has written an urgent letter to the Botswana government in order to try and save elephants that are being auctioned in a trophy hunting auction in Gabarone, 7th of February 2020.

BOTSWANA TO SELL SEVEN HUNTING PACKAGES OF TEN ELEPHANTS EACH

The Botswana government has demonstrated to the world that it does not care that elephants play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecological systems, nor does it seem to understand that killing off prime elephant bulls undermines the very basis of its successful ecotourism economy.

The Botswana communities are extremely dissatisfied at the process in which these elephant hunts are being marketed. There was meant to be a tendering process rather than an auction but clearly there is no governance capacity.

The qualifying criteria explicitly excludes tourism operators or Foundations, such as ourselves that do not necessarily want to hunt elephants but do desire to fund non-consumptive conservation in Botswana.

Please read our request to the Director of Wildlife and National Parks in Botswana for a revision of the qualifying criteria to enable us to bid on the hunting packages on the 7th February 2020 with the express intention that the elephants in these packages are not hunted should our bids be successful.

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