(CNN) -- A U.S. plan to give new protection to polar bears was
voted down Thursday at an international conference on endangered
species. The American delegation at the Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES) meeting in Bangkok, Thailand, had sought a ban on
the international trade of polar bear parts. The ban was opposed
by Canada, home to the world's largest population of polar
bears, as well as Norway and Greenland. It failed with 38 votes
for, 42 against and 46 abstentions. "Unfortunately, politics
seem to have overtaken science," Dan Ashe, director of the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and the head of the U.S. delegation to
the Bangkok conference, said in a statement. Polar bears have
been listed under Appendix II of the CITES accords, which
applies to species that are not currently threatened with
extinction but may face it without restrictions on the trade of
their body parts. The U.S. had proposed moving polar bears to
Appendix I, which applies to species