Zimbabwe and Namibia have failed to get permission from the United Nations for the exportation of ivory.
The two countries had lodged an application with the U.N.’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to be allowed to export ivory, arguing that if the trade was legalized, it would protect rather than further endanger Africa’s elephants.
CITES member countries voted overwhelmingly to reject the proposals by Zimbabwe and Namibia to sell tusks taken from animals that had died naturally or had been put down by the state, as well as those that had been seized from poachers.
“African elephants are in steep decline across much of the continent due to poaching for their ivory, and opening up any legal trade in ivory would complicate efforts to conserve them,” said Ginette Hemley, the head of the CITES delegation for conservation group WWF.
“It could offer criminal syndicates new avenues to launder poached ivory, undermining law enforcement,” she said.
A global ban on ivory sales was imposed in 1989 to stem a wave of poaching, but CITES allowed Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to sell stockpiles to Japan in 1999.
