The decision to temporarily lift the ban on trading in ivory raises arguments about how best to protect elephants.

Some environmentalists fear that it will open the floodgates to illegal poaching that will once again threaten the existence of these magnificent mammals.

But others say the success of the ban has meant there are now too many elephants in southern Africa for their own good. They have an enormous appetite, destroy crops and threaten the livelihood of local farmers.

They say a temporary lifting of the ban will fund a range of conservation measures that will protect wildlife in general.

But is this naïve?

Won't poachers take advantage of the situation to feed their black market ivory trade? Once the craftsmen of Asia have made ornate objects out of elephant tusks, how can you tell if the ivory came from a legitimate source or from an animal butchered by an illegal hunter?

What do you think?
This subject will also the be the subject of our weekly phone-in Newstalk, in association with the BBC World Service

Should elephants be killed for ivory?

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