Twenty-two African elephant nations met this week in Santiago, Chile, prior to the 12th Conference of theParties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). These African nations voted as a group to recommend that Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe be allowed a one-time sale of ivory stocks and annual sales thereafter based on approved quotas.
"We respect the vote of the range states at the recent Range State Dialogue to resume the ivory trade and the support their proposals currently are garnering from European countries, but we continue to have concerns," said Assistant Secretary of Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Craig Manson, the head of the U.S. delegation to CITES.
Manson emphasized that the United States hopes to play an important role in the discussions over the African proposals at the conference, scheduled for Nov. 3 to 15.
"The United States continues to be strongly committed to African elephant conservation," Manson said. "Regardless of the decision reached by the 160 nations that are part of CITES, ivory imports to the United States will continue to be prohibited under both the Endangered Species Act and the African Elephant Conservation Act."
The United States has been a leader in elephant conservation, contributing millions of dollars to support on-the-ground conservation in Africa.
"We recognize the steps range nations have taken to move to improve management and conservation of elephant populations and the needs of local communities who live in close contact with elephants to avoid or mitigate elephant-human conflicts." Manson said. "We also recognize the desire of African nations to use the proceeds from the sale of ivory stocks to help fund increased conservation efforts, but we don
