An elephant head with ivory tusks and other hunting trophies in a taxidermy store in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Robert Caputo/Getty

Donald Trump’s administration is reversing a ban on the imports of elephant trophies—including ivory—from two African nations.

The practice was previously banned in 2014 by the Obama administration. This U-turn applies to the taxidermied heads and tusks of elephants killed in Zimbabwe on or after January 21, 2016, and on or before 31 December, 2018, and elephants taken in Zambia from 2016 to 2018.

The onus for the change, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the agency tasked with the regulation, is that hunting wild African elephants in Zimbabwe and Zambia, “will enhance the survival of the species in the wild” as funds from the practice would be funneled towards conservation. The elephants are a threatened species with only about 350,000 left in the wild.


The problem with that rationale, says the opposition, is that much like legalising rhino horn elsewhere on the continent, it encourages poaching. The Humane Society says that poaching in Zimbabwe has ramped up in recent years, and this decision will only exacerbate the problem.

According to 2016’s Great Elephant Census, savannah populations declined by 30 per cent across 18 African nations from 2007 to 2014. In parts of the greater Zambezi ecosystem, which includes Zimbabwe, declines were as much as 74 per cent in that period.

Authorities in Zimbabwe claim there are around 82,000 elephants in the country, with annual quotas for hunters at 500 elephants. In Zambia, where some 22,000 elephants reside, falling numbers in recent years have led to government bans on these hunts. However, citing a resurgent population in 2015, that ban was overturned.

Tourists are able to hunt elephants on private game ranches in Zambia, many bordering protected national parks, with wild elephants often wandering over invisible lines. Last year, 30 elephants were killed there.