The administration of United States President Donald Trump clarified on Thursday that the decision to allow hunters to import elephants killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia was not yet finalised, Reuters reported.
The statement from the White House came after reports said that the government was set to reverse the ban that was put into place by Trump’s predecessor Barack Obama in 2014. Conservation groups were outraged by the proposed move, with the National Resources Defense Counsel saying it would move court if the government went ahead with the policy change.
Though African elephants are protected under the US Endangered Species Act, the country’s Fish and Wildlife Service can authorise imports of “trophies” if it concludes that the hunts in which the animals were killed helped the species survive, The New York Times reported. The agency is supposedly satisfied with conservation efforts in Zimbabwe and believes that hunts benefit local communities as they bring in money and provide them incentives to conserve elephants.
Conservationists, however, are afraid that the move could damage global efforts to end ivory trade, The Guardian reported.
The proposed decision sparked outrage on Twitter and brought back the spotlight on the Trump family’s connection to big-game hunting. Many users shared old photographs of Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr and and Eric posing with animals they had killed during hunting trips in Africa.
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