This week conservationists, policymakers and business representatives are gathered for the 2017 Conference of the Parties for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, which runs through Oct. 5 in Johannesburg, South Africa.
What’s at stake are some major decisions about ivory sales — whether to open them up or whether to encourage the 181 CITES signatories to close their domestic ivory trade.
The domestic ivory ban is a key objective for conservationists, including the Elephants Action Network, which met at the Clinton Global Initiative annual meeting last week, to discuss next steps in their work to stop the killing and trafficking of elephants, and to stop the demand for ivory.