In
this Sept. 29, 2013 file photo a game ranger stands next to a
rotting elephant carcass poisoned by poachers with cyanide in
Hwange National Park in Zimbabawe.
AP
Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi, File

• The US Fish and Wildlife service will remove the ban
  against importing trophies from elephants killed in
  Zimbabwe and Zambia back to the US. 
• The Obama Administration put the ban in place in 2014
  after elephant numbers dropped. 
• Hunting advocacy groups cheered the move, while animal
  rights activists decried it. 

The Trump Administration will remove protections against
importing trophies from elephants hunted legally in Zimbabwe
into the US, in a reversal of Obama-era policy. 

That means that US hunters will be able to bring the ivory
of elephants they have killed back into the US, potentially
disrupting the movement to end the global ivory trade.
The move also applies to elephants shot and killed in
Zambia.

While hunting elephants is legal in a number of African
countries — under a strict permitting system where hunters pay
high fees for the privilege — the Obama Administration put
restrictions on the import of trophies in place in 2014 after the
number of elephants dropped. 

African elephants are
listed
as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to
the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Under the Act, hunting
trophies, like elephant tusks, can only be imported if the
federal government finds that killing them will aid the long-term
survival of the species. 

A US Fish and Wildlife Service spokesman
told CNN on Thursday that allowing US hunters to shoot
elephants in Zimbabwe and Zambia will bring the countries
“much-needed revenue.” 

Wayne Pacelle, The CEO of the Humane Society, an animal
rights organization, slammed the reversal on
Wednesday.

“For decades, Zimbabwe has been run by a dictator who has
targeted and killed his political opponents, and operated the
country’s wildlife management program as something of a live
auction,” Pacelle said. “Let’s be clear: elephants
are on the list of threatened species; the global community has
rallied to stem the ivory trade; and now, the U.S. government is
giving American trophy hunters the green light to kill them.”

 The Safari Club International, a nonprofit hunting-advocacy
group, praised the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to
reverse the ban on Wednesday. 

“These positive findings for Zimbabwe and Zambia
demonstrate that the Fish and Wildlife Service recognizes that
hunting is beneficial to wildlife and that these range countries
know how to manage their elephant populations,” Paul Babaz,
the president of Safari Club International
said in a press release.

Zimbabwe’s longtime leader, Robert Mugabe,
lost his grip on power in the country in an apparent military
coup earlier this week. Mugabe is under house arrest, and
Zimbabwe’s military is effectively in control of the country’s
capital, Harare.  

“We appreciate the efforts of the Service and the U.S.
Department of the Interior to remove barriers to sustainable use
conservation for African wildlife,” Babaz added.

In a related move, Department of the Interior Secretary
Ryan Zinke — an avid hunter —
announced earlier this month the creation of the
International Wildlife Conservation Council, that will “develop a
plan for public engagement and education on the benefits of
international hunting,” according to Zinke’s
announcement. 

Trophy-hunting, ostensibly for conservation purposes,
caused an uproar after
Cecil the Lion was shot and killed by an American dentist in
2015.