E-Commerce Companies Declare Zero-Tolerance Illegal Online Wildlife Trading

-Commerce Companies Declare Zero-Tolerance Illegal Online Wildlife Trading

Fifteen of the leading e-commerce sellers operating in China, including Alibaba, Taobao, and Tencent, have signed a declaration stating they have a zero-tolerance policy towards their services being used to conduct illegal wildlife trading.

The statement says sellers and buyers must comply with all aspects of China’s Wild Animal Protection Law and regulations under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) governing the trade in wildlife goods.

The declaration was issued following a workshop on controlling online illegal wildlife trade organized by the National Forest Police Bureau of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) in collaboration with TRAFFIC earlier this month.

More than 30 participants from the National Forest Police of SFA, Network Security Bureau of Ministry of Public Security, Wildlife Conservation Department of SFA, China’s CITES Management Authority, e-commerce websites and TRAFFIC attended.

Following the workshop, all the e-commerce company representatives read and signed the ‘Commitment to zero-tolerance of illegal online wildlife trade’, as a demonstration of their determination to stop illegal online wildlife trading.

Although wildlife law enforcement efforts in China have led to gains in policing physical markets for wildlife, the availability of illegal wildlife goods online has been gaining ground, as evidenced by the booming popularity of the internet and the burgeoning number of websites where ‘high profile’ animal species or parts, such as elephants, rhinoceroses, tiger and marine turtles, are illegally offered for sale.

In April 2012, TRAFFIC found 3,389 advertisements for tiger bone, elephant ivory, rhino horn and hawksbill turtle products being offered through 15 Chinese-language e-commerce sites and associated auction websites and chat rooms.

China’s wildlife law enforcement authorities are taking positive steps to tackle the issue, through sustained intensive enforcement actions and by holding interagency workshops on the control of illegal online wildlife trade.

Posted by George Daniels on Wednesday June 13 2012, 5:42 AM EDT. Ref: TRAFFIC. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, Health. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0