The Last, Safe Place for Elephants?

Botswana is thought of as the last safe place for African elephants, but apparently that thought is no longer accurate.  At least 87 elephants whose remains were discovered in recent months were executed for their ivory by poachers.  The conservation organization, Elephants Without Boarders, was conducted an aerial survey when observers noticed carcasses around the Okavango Delta, far from the boarders where most poaching occurs.  This year's survey is only halfway complete.  The government disputes the embarrassing information, but the organization's director stands by the accuracy of the count.  He says each carcass has a noted GPS location; every flight has four people including a government observer.

Botswana is home to 130,000 elephants, about a third of the continent's population of savanna elephants.  The Great Elephant Census took place in 2016 and recorded a population drop of 30%.  Up until now Botswana's elephants largely have escaped the carnage wreaked by the poaching plague.  But the recording carcasses indicate organized poaching teams have infiltrated the country, just as the government decided to disarm rangers.  In 2014 Botswana adopted an unwritten shoot-to-kill policy, but in May new president Mokgweetsi Masisi disarmed the country's anti-poaching unit as a "corrective measure" since there was no legal authority for the prior policy.  According to filmmaker Dereck Joubert, there are still 800 armed BDF (Botswana Defense Force) soldiers in the field assigned to assist the Department of Wildlife and National Parks rangers.

A shoot to kill in defense of elephants policy is controversial, but there is little disagreement that rangers need to be armed, even if only for self-defense.  Poachers are organized criminal gangs that use military weapons to harvest ivory.  In 2012 three hundred elephants were killed in a mass slaughter by poachers using AK-47s and grenades in Cameroon.  Some observers say the government's hunting ban contributes to the increase in Botswana poaching. Elephants in neighboring countries have been decimated, and China's demand for ivory appears unabated despite its ban on ivory sales imposed in 2017.  Hong Kong and Japan both have legal ivory markets.