Botswana in many ways is one of the most enlightened countries in Africa. There's far less corruption and/or crime than many African countries. I've never met Ian Khama but I do know a bit about him through a third party. I'm told he's not particularly anti hunting but he is very conservation minded. - My guess is that this Lion ban is pretty much what it is claimed and appears to be.

Don't forget that this isn't the first time that Botswana has banned Lion hunting. The last time (if I remember correctly) had pretty much the same stated reasons but 'rumour' had it that at least part of the reason was that some of the concession holders had overshot their quota and then tried to pass some of the overshot animals off as being shot elsewhere as what might be described as PAC animals. - They got caught and shortly afterwards a blanket ban was introduced. When the ban was lifted, some dumb suckers decided it was worth paying a premium price to hunt Botswana Lion. I believe the top price paid was something like US$148K.