CAPE TOWN — Elephant hunting will resume in Botswana after a five-year prohibition, the government of that southern African nation said, despite intense lobbying by some conservation advocates to continue the ban.

The Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism announced the decision on Wednesday, saying that after “extensive consultations with all stakeholders,” the government had lifted the ban based on the “general consensus from those consulted.”

The policy has long been hotly debated, both within Botswana and in the broader international conservation community, as part of the effort to find the best way to balance the economic needs of the country’s people and demands of conservationists.

In recent months, Botswana has come under immense international pressure to preserve the ban, including multiple petitions and threats of tourism boycotts. The Humane Society International, an animal welfare group based in Washington, warned in March that “reinstating trophy hunting and starting elephant culls could hurt the country’s economy.”