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| Bushman child, CKGR, Botswana 2004
© 2004 Stephen Corry/Survival |
In re-examination yesterday, the Assistant Director of Wildlife, Jan
Broekhuis, claimed he had 'no reason to believe' that figures in a
graph he had drawn were unreliable. Last week in cross examination he
stated that the figures, which show the number of animals living in the
Central Kalahari Game Reserve, were indeed unreliable.
The matter is important because the government has implied that
wildlife numbers in the reserve had been decreasing before the 2002
relocations due to the presence of Bushmen living there. But studies by
independent experts show wildlife numbers in the reserve had doubled in
the ten years before the relocations. Some figures in the graph drawn
by Jan Broekhuis show a more than one hundred percent disparity from
figures produced by the Wildlife Department before the relocations.
Much of the time in court yesterday was taken up with the government
lawyer asking the witness to read passages from documents already
before the court, and to read out lists of numbers of various species
of wildlife.
The re-examination continues today.
