Botswana on hold
YŪGEN puts Botswana on hold
In 2013 ex-president Ian Khama introduced a ban on trophy hunting and a shoot-to-kill policy towards poachers. As YŪGEN tries to be a compass for travelers around the world to those few destinations which are truly exceptional pioneers in the protection of fauna and flora, we chose to offer and support Botswana in this decision by selling photography tours.
On May 22nd 2019 the new government of Botswana declared to lift the ban on elephant hunting, swiping one of our main reasons for choosing Botswana of the table. YŪGEN firmly believes tourism can create win-win situations for travelers and the destinations, their people, nature and wildlife. Therefor it has been a difficult decision to withdraw our support to Botswana and we do hope one day pure photography tourism will be able to provide an income for the local population and to protect and safeguard habitats.
There are many elements to consider before taking a stand in this matter. Local farmers suffer due to the great amount of elephants and the protection of people should also not be taken lightly. The opinion of those living in the area in difficult circumstances deserves our respect. However, it seems that for now Botswana is giving up on putting alternative solutions first, before trophy hunting. Consequently, YŪGEN has no other option than to accept this and also give up for now on the thought that we could help support a win-win situation in an exceptional country that had until recently a pioneering approach to conservation.
And so, currently we wait to see what the future will bring while silently cheering for Botswana to hopefully re-take that pioneering role. If you like to know more about the situation and YŪGEN’s point of view, which in no way is meant to judge nor claims to be a scientific paper, but is only an opinion, please read our full statement: Why YŪGEN puts Botswana on hold.
