A Botswana minister has defended “trophy hunting” and compared it to “culling”, saying it is a way to control wildlife populations in the country and a source of income for communities.

Meanwhile, MPs prepare to debate a proposal to ban British wildlife hunters from taking home body parts of animals they shoot, such as ivory.

politicians from Botswana They reportedly threatened to send 10,000 wild elephants to Hyde Park to show the British what it was like to live with them.

When Botswana’s Environment and Tourism Minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu was asked if his country really intended to do this, he told Sky News’ With Kay Burley breakfast,” which was a “verbal offer to the British” so that they could understand the problems faced by his people.

He said Botswana’s elephant population has almost “tripled” from 50,000 in 1984 to 130,000 in 2024, causing “a lot of chaos” and “constant conflicts between animals and humans”.

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He said scientists suggested the sustainable population in natural habitat was 50,000.

Mr Mtimkulu said the UK bill would be “counterproductive” and “disincentivize people who live with these animals from protecting them”.

He invited British politicians to come and “witness” the “destruction”, adding that he had been told by the former England footballer Gary Lineker Also in favor of ban.

The Match of the Day host previously called the practice “truly abhorrent” in a social media post.

“I would like to invite him to come to Botswana so that he can really understand and learn about elephant… trophy hunting in this country,” Mr Mtimhuru said.

The minister said he did not understand why some people in other countries found such pursuits abhorrent.

He said his government supported trophy hunting because it was “controlled” and “good for our people.”

“Trophy hunting, culling, is part of the approach to protecting these animals,” he said.

“We cull them, we control their numbers – the numbers in Botswana are so explosive, they need to be controlled. Trophy hunting is one way of controlling these explosive numbers.”

Asked whether trophy hunting was the same as culling, he said: “If you talk about ethics… you can try to differentiate between them.

“If you go out and kill an animal, it’s the same thing. This is hunting… We don’t just go out and hunt and kill. We give quotas every year so we can control the number of animals in the wild .

“That’s why we say our hunting is controlled. If we issue hunting quotas, it’s because we want to reduce the numbers of wild animals, not just because we want to kill them.”

If one wanted to hunt an animal and bring back “trophies” from its “carcass,” he said, “the end point is the same.”

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The minister said the numbers of all species in his country are increasing every day and every year, not declining.

“It shows that conservation work is going well and that this conservation work is closely linked to trophy hunting, which helps the community and provides them with a source of income,” he said.

Depriving them of these incomes would “disincentivize” them from caring for wildlife and could lead to a demand for land – set aside for conservation – for farming and other income-generating activities, he said.

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Big game hunting prohibited Lifted in Botswana 2019 There are claims that the elephant population is affecting the livelihoods of small-scale farmers.

In some areas of the country, there are more elephants than people, according to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).

The bill to be debated by MPs on Friday is a private member’s bill led by Labor MP John Spellar. It is unclear at this stage whether the government will provide support.

The 2019 Conservative manifesto promised to introduce a ban, and the government late last year said it remained committed to introducing one.