JOHANNESBURG: Thousands of conservationists and top government officials went into talks in Johannesburg on Saturday to thrash out international trade regulations on elephant ivory, rhino horn and hundreds of endangered wild animals and plants. The booming illegal trade of wildlife has put huge pressure on a treaty signed by more than 180 countries – the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). The plight of Africa’s rhino and elephants, targeted for their horns and tusks, is expected to dominate much of the 12-day meeting. “We are now embarking on the largest meeting ever in the 43-year history of CITES,” the Convention’s Secretary General John Scanlon said at the start of the talks. “We are going to review trade controls of close to 500 species of wild animals and plants. High on the agenda we have the African elephants, the rhino, the pangolin… the silky shark,” he said. Illegal trade in wildlife is valued at around $20 billion (18 billion euros) a year, according to CITES.