Bushmen are not poachers - wildlife conference protest The Ecologist 13th February 2014 The anti-poaching conference in London today was disrupted by protests at the Botswana delegation - who call the indigenous Bushmen of the Kalahari poachers and are forcing them into death camps. To ban the Bushmen from hunting while at the same time opening up the reserve to fracking and mining is sheer hypocrisy. Loud protests at an anti-poaching conference in London today highlighted the devastating impact of a hunting ban on Africas last hunting Bushmen in Botswana - attended by Ian Khama, President of Botswana, alongside Prince Charles and Prince William. Protesters outside the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade 2014 chanted slogans and carried placards reading Botswana: Bushmen hunters are not poachers. Official persecution Botswana is persecuting the Bushmen of the Central Kalahari Game Reserve in the name of wildlife conservation by stopping them from hunting game. But the Bushmen pose no threat to the wildlife of the CKGR, alongside which they have lived sustainably for centuries. The Botswana governments hypocrisy was recently exposed by revelations that large parts of the CKGR have been leased out for fracking, and a mine by Gem Diamonds is projected to start operations inside the CKGR in October 2014. A 2006 high court ruling confirmed the Bushmens right to live and hunt in the CKGR, but the government continues to intimidate, torture and arrest Bushmen for hunting. Botswanas Bushman-only Pass Laws The majority of Bushmen are forced to apply for restrictive permits to enter their ancestral land in the CKGR - a policy which has been likened to the hated Pass Laws under apartheid South Africa. A high court judge involved in the 2006 court case said that the governments refusal to allow the Bushmen to hunt was tantamount to condemning the [Bushmen] to death by starvation. Survival has launched a travel boycott of Botswana and an ad campaign highlighting the governments drive to deport the Bushmen from their land. The boycott has been supported by thousands of travelers and by celebrities Gillian Anderson, Quentin Blake, Joanna Lumley, Sophie Okonedo, and Mark Rylance. Sheer hypocrisy Survivals Director Stephen Corry said today: President Khama should not hide the persecution of the Bushmen behind the mask of conservation. To ban the Bushmen from hunting while at the same time opening up the reserve to fracking and mining is sheer hypocrisy. The CKGR was established in the 1960s in order to protect the Bushmens land and the wildlife they depend on. But in three brutal clearances between 1997 and 2005, the Bushmen were evicted from their land. theecologist.org/News/news_round_up/2280238/bushmen_are_not_poachers_wildlife_conference_protest.html
Posted on: Fri, 14 Feb 2014 11:00:51 +0000
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