Exports of long-tailed macaques from Cambodia will remain legal pending further review, despite recommendations for a suspension to prevent poaching of the critically endangered monkey from the wild. The proposed suspension had been raised at last week’s meeting in Geneva of the Standing Committee of CITES, the global convention on the wildlife trade. It called on Cambodian authorities to provide more proof that wild-caught macaques (Macaca fascicularis) weren’t being sold as captive-bred animals, casting doubt on official data ostensibly showing that the country’s macaque exports were being supplied by breeding centers. But delegates to the meeting on Feb. 4 agreed to grant Cambodian wildlife officials until November 2025 to host inspections from CITES, produce logbooks for captive-bred monkeys, and submit more data regarding the birth rates at monkey-breeding facilities. Chheang Dany, deputy director of Cambodia’s Forestry Administration, said at the CITES meeting that Cambodia strongly objected to the recommendation that trade be suspended. He said “Cambodia already provided clarification” on data surrounding birth rates that CITES experts and conservationists had said were too high to be realistic. Dany also said data surrounding long-tailed macaque birth rates provided to CITES without Cambodia’s consent. Reporters visited a long-tailed macaque breeding facility in Pursat province. The farm is owned by Vanny Bio, one of the companies indicted by U.S. federal prosecutors. Image by Gerald Flynn / Mongabay. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had spent five years investigating alleged monkey laundering in Cambodia — the practice of wild-caught monkeys being passed off as…This article was originally published on Mongabay