Recently read that Botswana is going to allow elephant hunting after a 5 year ban. Made me think of the excellent work of Allan Savory. https://www.ted.com/talks/allan_savory_how_to_green_the_world_s_deserts_and_reverse_climate_change

We should be smart enough to manage elephants, to help us stop the desertification of Africa. Elephants provide crucial grazing & terrain-bulldozing services. A little planning, a lot of patience, and we can utilize their intelligence rather than obliterating it.

It seems that there is a new president who is rescinding Ian Khama’s ban on elephant hunting because in rural areas such as the Okovango delta, humans and elephants collide. The human’s much worse for the interaction. And while it is mostly property destruction and crop decimation, some humans do die.

So those of us far away cannot impose our own sense of morality. Especially since we only know of elephants safely captive in zoo diaramas.

My thoughts are that it is ridiculous to kill elephants, when we can harness their intellect.

Their roaming and grazing lifestyles, if adequately directed, can help reverse the overwhelming tide of desertification caused my monoculture industrial agriculture practices. Land become arid and lacking nutrients when we don’t rotate crops to allow for nature to restock the top soil.

And by nature, I mean manure. Trampled on. And tilled in by living, grazing creatures.

Elephants not only fit that bill, their size ensures they roto-till far more than most mammals.

Be certain to see some depiction of this dilemma and my suggested resolution in my upcoming feature film.

Reach out to lend your support.

Original story > https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/05/botswana-lifts-ban-on-elephant-hunting/

Here is a current update > https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/06/elephants-poached-in-botswana/