Many conservation groups wanted all elephants to get the highest protection, but Tom Milliken, an elephant expert from wildlife trade monitoring group Traffic, said: "Where elephants fall on the Cites appendices is inconsequential to their survival.
"Escalating demand in Asia and the poaching crisis in Africa and Asia perhaps are wake-up calls for many conservation groups," said Grace Ge Gabriel, the Asia regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
"This is fantastic news, about a fantastic building" said Adam Wilkinson, secretary of Save - one of many conservation groups which have campaigned to preserve the grade I building in public ownership and use.
But as the Gunks become discovered, many conservation groups and local residents say it is important not just to make the land accessible to the public, but to safeguard its natural beauty from the wear and tear of tourism.
"Scores of scientists (including ourselves) and many conservation groups, including Greenpeace, the Pew Environment Group and some national branches of WWF, have protested over various MSC procedures or certifications.
IN JUNE last year Daniel Avelino, the public prosecutor of Brazil's state of Pará, the home of most of the Amazon cattle-herd, probably saved more rainforest than many conservation groups ever will.
In the aftermath of that maneuver, viewed by many conservation groups as a debacle, some environmentalists wondered whether their organizations had gone too far in fighting to prevent the federal government from delisting the wolf after the population expanded.
Meanwhile, the Game and Wildlife Conservation Trust, which I see as a greenwashing agency for the shooting industry (how many conservation groups do you know that teach children to use shot guns and run courses on snaring, lamping and trapping?), is campaigning to reduce pine marten populations in Scotland.
