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Lifting elephant hunting ban
#1
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47330414

Government workers in Botswana have been meeting for months to figure out what they should do with their large elephant population. It has been estimated that there are approximately 130000 elephants in Botswana, which some believe is far too much for the ecosystem. Since the elephant population has grown so much, elephants are straying from their "historic range," or, from where their ancestors had lived in the past. The growing population means that more food and water is needed for the elephants to continue to live, so, they have begun to migrate to where humans live, creating conflict by destroying crops, marching through villages, and sometimes even killing people. Elephant hunting will give people job opportunities, and the meat from the hunted elephants may be used as pet food. People who argue against lifting the hunting ban state that the elephant population is not as large, and is not growing as quickly as others believe. In addition, people against lifting the hunting ban argue that lifting the ban would result in backlash from other countries. There have been many tourists who visited Botswana ever since the hunting ban, and if lifted, people of the country believe that tourist rates would decrease and the reputation of the country would be damaged. I, personally, think that the hunting ban should not be lifted since elephants have been known to be endangered. Although elephant populations may have increased over the past few years, the populations dropped in the first place due to human hunting, as well as poaching. Animals are able to keep each other's populations in check through predator-prey cycles. I think that lifting the ban would only drastically decrease the elephant population once again.
#2
I agree with all of your strong points in regards to not lifting the ban. I feel that it would be possible to maintain numbers of elephant populations in the area in ways other than poaching. Using elephants, an endangered species, for things such as food for pets and their skin/tusks for products I feel is wrong. In lifting the ban, it may encourage other countries to lift similar bans they may have once profits in Botswana rise from this. It would become a thing mainly for business and not for the protection of the environment. I do believe, however, that it is a great problem that elephants are roaming around and could potentially kill many tourists if not careful. I feel that through the natural carrying capacity within our ecosystems and the help of habitat maintenance (in an eco-friendly way) we could maintain our elephant populations. If not considered carefully, lifting the ban could cause all elephants in the Botswana area to go extinct. Knowing all of this, I agree with you in that lifting the ban would cause more problems than it would solve any. We cannot risk having the elephant population levels to drop more than they already have throughout the world.
#3
I also strongly agree with all of the points listed above on why this ban should not be removed. I believe that humans should not be able to hunt these animals for sport in order to keep the elephant population in check, but rather leave it to the nature. However, if the population of these elephants in this particular region does so happen to get out out of control as it appears to be doing so, I would rather like to see some of the elephants moved to regions where the elephant population is not as large, rather then them being hunted, because that could lead to the endangerment of their species.


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