The Washington Post said President Donald Trump is right to review the decision to lift a ban on elephant trophies coming into the U.S.
"There is bad timing, and then there is this," the Post said in an editorial. "Last week, an apparent military coup placed Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in custody, ushering in a new period of political uncertainty.
"A few days later, the Trump administration announced that Zimbabwe's government could be trusted to manage its elephant population responsibly, and so a ban on importing Zimbabwean elephant trophies — that is, body parts of animals U.S. hunters have slaughtered — would be lifted.
"Fortunately, President Trump said Friday that he would review this unwise decision, which ought not to stand."
The newspaper, calling elephants "a species in crisis" said the U.S. should not endanger them any further.
"Any sensible review would recommend keeping the ban, for now," the Post said.
"In seeking to reverse that call, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service argued that Zimbabwe's government offered convincing assurances that it has a management program in place based on good data with which to impose sensible hunting limits.
"Missing, though, was evidence the program is working on the ground — or a sense of what the current political instability means for conservation policy."
The Post conceded a trophy ban will not save the African elephant.
"The largest threat continues to be poaching for large-scale tusk harvesting to satisfy the international ivory trade," the editorial said. "Recent moves by the United States and China to fight this trade — by cracking down on when and where ivory can be sold — are important elements in any strategy to stabilize and enhance the elephant population."
And it added: "Now is not the time for the U.S. government to take the pressure off Zimbabwe."
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