This reverses the ban set in place by the Obama administration in 2014 which prohibited importing elephant trophies into the United States.

Hunting has become a front and center topic in the US administration since President Donald Trump appointed an avid hunter Ryan Zinke as his Interior Secretary overseeing the Fish and Wildlife Service

Lifting the ban on importing heads and tusks  flies in the face of the US Endangered Species Act that lists elephants as endangered.

The US Interior Department cites the discredited argument that hunting financially benefits conservation.

Hunting and poaching has reduced the world’s  elephant population from 10 million to just 400,000 today.

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The move’s designed to  remove the large fog of legal trade that still conceals illegal ivory transactions.

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Under current guidelines, ivory can be sold if documents are produced showing  it was brought into the United States before it was listed as endangered or that the elephant died of natural causes.

The new rules will restrict sales to genuine antiques, like ivory statues, artwork or chiseled chess pieces, that have been lawfully imported, as well as items like musical instruments that were made using less than 200 grams of ivory.

The new rules aim to curb the rampant slaughter of the elephant that now reached  96 deaths a day.

They also intend to severely restrict the African ivory market in the United States, which is the world’s second-largest consumer of illegally poached ivory.

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