Proposal to overturn ban on trade in elephant ivory rejected at CITES
In a vote on Thursday afternoon, Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - known as CITES - decided against the proposals put forward by Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, by a ratio of about four to one.
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Attempts to overturn a ban on trade in elephant ivory by a handful of African countries have been firmly rejected at an international wildlife meeting of conservationists and Governments in Geneva.
In a vote on Thursday afternoon, Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - known as CITES - decided against the proposals put forward by Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, by a ratio of about four to one.
More than 50 other proposals are up for discussion, covering 36,000 species of animal and plant life, with 183 signatories to the Convention taking part.
In another vote on Thursday, States accepted greater controls on trade in giraffes, whose dwindling population is at even greater risk than elephants, conservationists warned.
According to CITES experts, there are only "a couple of tens of thousands" of giraffes left, compared with "a couple of hundred thousand" elephants.
Under Convention rules, committee votes can be overturned in next week's plenary session, although this is unlikely, a CITES spokesperson said, especially when the results are so "lop-sided".
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