Trade restrictions on rhino horns and elephant ivory remain intact following the conclusion Friday of a wide-ranging international conference in which the U.S. delegation scored both wins and losses.
Meeting since Nov. 24 in the Uzbekistan city of Samarkand, negotiators and technical experts watched over by scores of advocates considered numerous proposals to adjust trade restrictions on vulnerable species.
“We avoided the worst at this meeting by protecting elephants and rhinos from ivory and horn trade, while many rare and endemic species, some captured for the pet trade, received vital global support,” said Tanya Sanerib, international legal director at the Center for Biological Diversity.
The conservation group, although a frequent critic of the Trump administration, allied with the U.S. delegation on several high-profile issues considered at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting.
