BANGKOK (dpa) — Thai authorities might be regretting their decision to host a meeting next week of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Conservation groups such as the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) are using the international meeting, which begins Sunday and runs through March 14, to put a spotlight on Thailand’s role as a major hub in the illegal trade of African ivory, which, the WWF said, kills an estimated 30,000 pachyderms a year.

The WWF and the wildlife-trade-monitoring group TRAFFIC have called on convention members to slap sanctions on Thailand if it refuses to use the Bangkok meeting to ban its domestic ivory industry or, at the very least, to provide a clear deadline for passing legislation to better regulate the trade.

“The CITES members are of two schools of thought on the issue,’’ said a Thailand-based elephant conservationist who asked to remain anonymous. “One is that we should be nice to Thailand because they are hosting the meeting, and the other is that we’ve got them by the scrotum.’’

Although Thailand is a signatory to the convention and abides by the treaty’s ban on trade in African ivory, Thai law allows the sale of ivory taken from domesticated Asian elephants registered in Thailand.

Conservationists charged that Thailand’s legal trade in Asian elephant tusks provides an opening for African ivory illegally smuggled into the kingdom, where it is either funnelled into the country’s domestic supply of trinkets, amulets and mounted tusks, a ubiquitous office decoration for successful businessmen and politicians, or re-exported to China, the main market for ivory in Asia.

The WWF presented Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra Wednesday with a petition signed by 500,000 people from 200 countries calling for a ban on Thailand’s ivory trade. “We will consider the issue and how we can help,’’ Yingluck said.