Conservationists call on eBay to stop ivory trade
AFP - Tuesday, May 15 08:20 pm
BERLIN (AFP) - The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) on Tuesday said there was a brisk trade in ivory jewellery on eBay and urged the Internet auction site to put a stop to it.
IFAW said it had counted a total of 2,000 illegal ivory objects on sale on eBay in Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States in a single week.
Peter Pueschel from the IFAW's branch on trade in illegal species said the organisation has called on eBay to block any attempt to sell ivory on its websites.
"The sale of ivory objects on the Internet is booming because there are big profits to make without the risk of getting caught," he said.
"It gives criminals the chance to trade ivory jewellery anonymously."
Trade in ivory has been banned worldwide since 1989 under a treaty of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
African nations estimate that decades of poaching reduced the continent's elephant population to between 400,000 to 600,000 from up to five million in the early 20th century.
Ivory jewellery went out of fashion after the 1970s as environmental awareness grew, but has in recent years come back in vogue.
(http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070515/tsc-environment-conservation-b1f5339.html)
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AFP - Tuesday, May 15 08:20 pm
BERLIN (AFP) - The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) on Tuesday said there was a brisk trade in ivory jewellery on eBay and urged the Internet auction site to put a stop to it.
IFAW said it had counted a total of 2,000 illegal ivory objects on sale on eBay in Australia, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United States in a single week.
Peter Pueschel from the IFAW's branch on trade in illegal species said the organisation has called on eBay to block any attempt to sell ivory on its websites.
"The sale of ivory objects on the Internet is booming because there are big profits to make without the risk of getting caught," he said.
"It gives criminals the chance to trade ivory jewellery anonymously."
Trade in ivory has been banned worldwide since 1989 under a treaty of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
African nations estimate that decades of poaching reduced the continent's elephant population to between 400,000 to 600,000 from up to five million in the early 20th century.
Ivory jewellery went out of fashion after the 1970s as environmental awareness grew, but has in recent years come back in vogue.
(http://uk.news.yahoo.com/afp/20070515/tsc-environment-conservation-b1f5339.html)
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