I actually agree with one aspect of the article: CITES has outlived its usefulness.
Anti-hunting organizations have not had much success in stopping hunters, so they have adopted a page from the environmentalists playbook: don't go after the one you really want to stop, but rather go after the distribution or other channels that they rely on. CITES is one of those channels. It was meant to regulate trade, and has now been co-opted by anti-hunting organizations to ban trade in animals which are not endangered in the least (giraffes in southern Africa for example). If trade is banned, fewer will hunt. Simple. They have also gone after airlines with great success, and are now going after governments which are easily swayed (British Columbia (grizzly bears), California (hunting trophies); the UK, the US (with its own rules on trade in species notwithstanding CITES), etc).
These same activists are now using the COVID-19 pandemic to urge governments to stop all trade in wildlife and all eating of, and interaction with, wildlife by humans. The annual deer harvest alone in the US was more than 330 million pounds of meat in 2017. When it comes to Africa, what alternative sources of protein do these people expect to provide to a hungry continent? With proper regulation, wildlife is a renewable resource which provides humans with enormous benefits.
When it comes to hunting organizations like SCI and DSC, they need to acknowledge two things:
1. We need to keep the silent majority on our side by constantly demonstrating that hunting is a powerful force for conservation. They are reasonably good at this, but could always be better.
2. We need to attack the animals rightists head on. There is no point in trying to get them on our side. These activists are not in favour of less poaching, or better regulated hunting. They are against the killing of any animals for any reason. They will lie, cheat and steal from the public in pursuit of their aims. We cannot reason with these people. That means every hunter and every organization supported by hunters' dollars needs to step up and let the world know the good we are doing, while relentlessly exposing the antis for what they are.