Online animal trade a wild card

Source: Xinhua  |   2008-11-21  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

ONLINE trade has become a new outlet for illegal wildlife businesses, posing a significant challenge for conservation efforts, international animal-protection activists said in Beijing yesterday.

"The rise of online trade is contributing to the rapid growth of illegal trade in wildlife as it is fast, convenient and anonymous," said Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Internet trade in wildlife posed a significant and immediate threat to the survival of many endangered species, she said, quoting a recent IFAW report entitled "Killing with Keystrokes: An Investigation of the Illegal Wildlife Trade on the World Wide Web."

Over six weeks, the IFAW found 183 Websites in 11 countries containing more than 7,000 illegal wildlife product lists. Items for sale included ivory, tiger pelts and monkeys.

Total value of those items reached US$38 million.

The United States had the largest number of illegal wildlife items for sale on the Internet, followed by Britain and China, which had more than 500 illegal wildlife products for sale on Websites.

More efforts should be devoted to stopping this trade in China as the country had more than 1,400 endangered species as well as the largest Netizen population of 210 million, said Gabriel.

Meng Xianlin, deputy director of China's Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office, said new access to illegal wildlife trade made it difficult to control.

"Online trade is too fast, which makes it hard to collect evidence. This will be a long-term challenge for us," Meng said.

Meng's opinion was echoed by Geng Yongping, an official of the nation's Public Security Bureau for Forestry. Geng called for a summit about online wildlife trade to gauge the country's current situation.

China's leading online trade Website, Taobao.com, and IFAW yesterday jointly launched a month-long campaign to raise awareness about illegal wildlife trade.