Illegal trade in ivory 'boosted by eBay sales'

Illegal trade in ivory 'boosted by eBay sales'
By Jonathan Brown
Published: 21 May 2007
Independent UK

International attempts to control the illegal supply of poached ivory are being undermined by the burgeoning market for illicit animal parts on the internet, according to a report.

An investigation by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) found ivory objects banned under global wildlife conventions openly for sale on eBay. Elsewhere on the internet, live primates, turtle shells, big cat skins, great white shark bones and even an elephant-foot ashtray were freely available.

A team of researchers discovered 424 elephant ivory items being auctioned on the British eBay site - only two of which carried the necessary government certification making them legal for sale in the UK. Under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), ivory can only be traded if it pre-dates 1947, before which it is regarded as antique. But Ifaw accused eBay of failing to police its own strict rules on animal parts after reporting 105 items without certification. It said, 75 on the items remained on sale 48 hours later.

Despite mounting pressure from southern African producers and ivory markets such as China and Japan, the sale of new ivory is strictly controlled. Collapsing elephant populations during the 1970s and 1980s, particularly in Asia and west Africa, resulted in a global ban on sales of new ivory in 1989.

Since then only 50 tons, much of it seized from poachers, has been legally traded in a one-off sale in 1999. But a further 60 tons is likely to be sold after lobbying from Botswana and Namibia and there is talk of easing the ban at a Cites meeting next month in The Hague. Wildlife groups say the failure to control the supply chains is one of the reasons why 20,000 elephants are poached in Africa each year.

According to Rosa Hill of Ifaw, the time has come for eBay to ban the sale of all ivory and other animal parts regardless of their age. "It is impossible to tell the difference between legal and illegal ivory on the internet. which makes it a very good place for poachers to launder the proceeds from their illegal activities," she said.

The snapshot survey was conducted in the UK, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States. It tracked more than 2,200 ivory items listed on eBay websites and found that more than 90 per cent of the listings breached national wildlife policies.

The online auction house, which has become the world's largest marketplace with more than 100 million items for sale, admitted that policing the site remained problematic.

In a statement it said: "EBay policies restrict the sale of elephant ivory in accordance with existing UK and international law." A spokeswoman for the auction house said the company was committed to tackling the problem of ivory sales.

In a recent survey for Ifaw, 83 per cent of respondents supported the continuing international ban. It called on the UK biodiversity minister, Barry Gardiner, to vote in favour of the ban at the forthcoming Cites meeting.