United States Quietly Allows Import of Some Elephant Trophies
The US government has reauthorized the import of elephant trophies killed in Zimbabwe and Zambia, despite the reluctance of President Donald Trump. A situation allowed by a court decision that went in favor of the US Fish and Wildlife.
Barack Obama had banned in 2014 the import of elephant trophies included those that were hunted legally in those two countries, the government of Donald Trump had announced that he was for the authorization of these imports.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the organization in charge of management and prevention, declared recently that it would authorize the importation of hunting trophies if the hunting of trophies can generate funds (up to $ 50,000) and thus support species conservation.
For Donald Trump, his decision was clear. It was not his ambition to return to the ban made under Obama and had written a tweet "Big-game trophy decision will be announced next week but will be very hard pressed to change my mind that this horror show in any way helps conservation of Elephants or any other animal".
Mais depuis le 1er mars, l'US Fish and Wildlife supervisée par Ryan Zinke, le secrétaire à l'Intérieur, a publié une note officielle qui confirme la fin de l'interdiction prise en 2014 par Obama. Cette fin d'interdiction est valable pour les éléphants mais également pour les lions, les pachydermes et les blesboks. Mais si l'agence américaine autorise à nouveau l'importation de trophées, l'activité ne se fera pas non sans restrictions.
Some argued that the decision to allow trophy imports might help animal populations, as fees paid by hunters to shoot selected animals can help fund wildlife conservation initiatives. However, the strategy may not be so effective should the money be siphoned away by corrupt authorities, as some fear.
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