We start today in Southern Africa. A change has been made in the nation of Botswana, and it concerns elephants.
Since 2014, it’s been illegal to hunt them there. Botswana has an estimated 130,000 African elephants, more than any other African country.
It put the hunting ban in 2014 to help the animals recover from habitat loss and poaching when people kill them illegally. Now, though, Botswana’s government has eliminated the ban, which means elephant hunting is once again allowed there, as it already is in neighboring nations.
The idea is that legal hunting will take place in the wilderness, far away from where people live. The government says elephant populations are now stable, so they can be hunted. And it says that problems between residents and elephants had been increasing. Scores of people are killed or injured by elephants each year.

And a villager who spoke to cnn says the animals destroy crops and don’t benefit the community. Conservationists, of course, have a different view. One told cnn that hunting is a, quote, "outdated practice which has no place in the modern world." And another said that allowing elephant hunting is like allowing people to shoot cats, dogs or great apes. But he also says that if elephant hunting is managed correctly, it won’t affect overall numbers of elephants in Botswana. Poaching, however, can.
There are signs that poaching’s been on the rise in Botswana. It’s carried out by people who hope to illegally sell the ivory from elephant tusks on the black market.
It’s not known exactly what kind of impact legal hunting will have on poaching or elephant populations as a whole, but it’s something that Botswana’s people, its government and conservationists will be watching.

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