Trump to keep ban on importing elephant trophies

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will uphold a government ban on hunters bringing trophies of elephants that were killed in Zimbabwe into the United States, pending a further review.

His evening Twitter message reversed a decision by his own administration that was announced this week and promoted as recently as Friday afternoon by the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

“Put big game trophy decision on hold until such time as I review all conservation facts,” Mr. Trump tweeted. “Under study for years. Will update soon with [Interior Secretary Ryan] Zinke. Thank you!”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had signaled its intention to end the 2014 ban, citing Zimbabwe’s convation efforts. The White House also had argued that the hunting would bring money to local communities and incentivize effortsto protect elephants.

Hunting trophies can include any number of body parts, including tusks. In 2016, the federal government, under then-President Barack Obama, imposed a near-total ban on the commercial trade of African elephant ivory because of a lack of data on conservation efforts in the African country, though trophies were exempted from that ban.

The African elephant population has drastically declined in the past decade, shrinking by about 30 percent between 2007 and 2014, according to the Great Elephant Census, an effort financed by Paul Allen, a philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft.

That project found that Zambia and Zimbabwe have had mixed success in maintaining or growing their elephant populations. Parks near countries with poor elephant preservation efforts were not doing well, for example. But elephant populations elsewhere were stable or increasing.

In a report published last year, the Democratic staff of the House Natural Resources Committee challenged the claim that hunting can help to pay for conservation, arguing that more oversight is needed.