Analysis of Botswana's Wildlife Policies and Laws

Book excerpt: Botswana has a long history of wildlife conservation dating back to 1890 when the first game protection statute was enacted. Since that time, wildlife policies and laws have been developed to address increased threats to wildlife, especially poaching and trafficking in wildlife products. Botswana now has in place various strategies and policies on wildlife conservation and management which guide the enactment of wildlife legislation. The key wildlife law is the Wildlife Conservation and National parks Act enacted in 1992. The Act sets out the institutional and administrative framework of the wildlife. There are strong provisions that strictly regulate wildlife conservation and utilization and address wildlife crime and wildlife law enforcement. Nevertheless, there are still some gaps that exist within the law that need to be sealed in order to effectively curb wildlife crime. Botswana is quite robust in adopting international standards to address wildlife crime and has enacted legislation to stop illegal trade in wildlife and wildlife products and deter profiting from wildlife crime by confiscating proceeds of crime and criminalizing money laundering. Legislation to curb corruption among public officials, including those who deal with wildlife matters, is in place and its rigorous enforcement has led to Botswana being one of the least corrupt countries in Africa. The effectiveness of the wildlife legislation in Botswana cannot be accurately gauged as there is little information on the number of wildlife crimes committed and the conviction rates of wildlife offenders.