WASHINGTON The Trump administration will reverse an Obama-era ban on the importation of elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Zambia after determining that sport hunting in those countries will help conserve the species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service confirmed Wednesday.

The decision was made public not by the federal agency but via a celebratory news release early Tuesday from Safari Club International, a trophy hunting advocacy group that, along with the National Rifle Association, sued to block the 2014 ban .

Greg Sheehan, principal deputy director of the FWS, broke the news to the hunting organization during the African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF) in Tanzania, an agency spokesperson told HuffPost. The forum, which runs through Friday, is being hosted by the Safari Club International Foundation and the United Republic of Tanzania.

African elephants have been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1978. A provision of the law, however, allows for sport-hunted trophies to be imported if the government determines that hunting will help safeguard the population.

An FWS spokesperson provided HuffPost with a pair of nearly identical statements regarding the agencys findings for elephants in each country.

Legal, well-regulated sport hunting as part of a sound management program can benefit the conservation of certain species by providing incentives to local communities to conserve the species and by putting much-needed revenue back into conservation, the spokesperson wrote. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has determined that the hunting and management programs for African elephants in [Zimbabwe and Zambia] will enhance the survival of the species in the wild.