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In a landslide election that defied all expectations (ruling parties usually remain in power in Africa), Botswana has a new president. Botswana does not elect presidents directly - members of Parliament decide who will be their next leader. Given that new President Duma Boko was head of the party elected with the most seats in the new Parliament, his presidency was all but guaranteed.

Botswana faces a fiscal crisis, not least because their main GDP contributor to national income – diamonds – has fallen in recent years, with large profits still flowing to South African companies. Also, because Botswana’s other main source of income, wildlife tourism, has also been outsourced to mainly South African companies. For sure, these tourism companies invested many millions to build wildlife tourism facilities including camps, gain concessions and use international marketing presence for tourist recruitment efforts. But the net gain to Botswana has been rather minimal – some local employment in those camps – all of which seem to be supplied with foreign managers, food flown in, and light aircraft transport owned by South African corporates. This is hardly equitable, even colonial, in terms of Botswana’s national and natural resources. Not surprising then that Botswana’s youth unemployment stands at about 27%?

President Boko has vowed to make changes in this outflow. One avenue we trust he will pursue is to better conserve Botswana’s magnificent wildlife resource. Under the past administration, about 400 elephants were made available to trophy hunters. Fortunately, former President Masisi did not place lions on the trophy list, although many were probably killed as “problem animals” – no statistics are available from Botswana’s wildlife authorities. Such killings are largely unnecessary as LionAid has already demonstrated in Kenya that rural communities can live in harmony with lions given incentives meaningful to them.

If Botswana is going to turn the necessary economic corner, wildlife is going to be a key component.

We stand ready to engage with President Boko to lend our expertise, with our established Botswana based experts, to lend a hand. Botswana’s unequalled wildlife diversity and numbers must, through more equitable dispensations, benefit residents above corporates, and be more mindful of conservation rather than consumption. President Boko has already indicated that there will be changes made to the status quo in the coming years. We wish him well.

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