Source: National Geographic
In South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia are revisiting the 1989 ban on elephant and ivory trade, and proposing its legalization.
The ban on international ivory trade went into effect in 1990 in response to a drastic decade of poaching that heavily depleted the south African population after killing well over 600,000 animals.
Even after the ban, elephants continue to be the targets of poachers, with at least 30,000 killed annually.
The proposal would lift the ban and the elephant population would no longer be protected from sale and international trade. Authors of the proposal argue that the elephant population is “healthy enough to sustain ivory trade,” and also argue that each country should be able to establish its own rules for animals living on its land.
Proponents further suggest that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) had agreed in a 2008 compromise, to develop a ‘framework for selling ivory’ and still hasn’t done so.
The proposal will be voted on during the convention in late September, early October.
Read full story at: National Geografic