High street stores tell eBay to tackle shoplifters

Leading high street retailers have told internet auction site eBay to clamp down on stolen goods being sold on its British website.

House of Fraser, River Island, Asda and other retailers met the company and asked it to share intelligence on suspect sellers.

They also demanded that eBay ban the sale of credit notes and vouchers sold by high street stores.

Shoplifters regularly return stolen goods to shops and exchange them for vouchers.

The site has also been criticised for selling elephant ivory in a wildlife charity report.

An investigative report released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said customers were literally bidding for the world's largest land mammals' extinction.

It found only 10 of the 424 listings of ivory in the UK were found to be fully compliant with eBay policies which reflect international legislation designed to protect elephants from commercial exploitation.

Robbie Marsland, IFAW UK director, said: "Elephants are facing extinction, in part because of internet ivory trade. It is time for action.

"IFAW believes that as the world's largest online shop window, eBay has a special responsibility to lead the way by banning ivory from their sites.

"Only a global ban on all ivory sales will remove the cover under which this criminal activity currently operates."

The snapshot survey conducted in the UK, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the USA tracked over 2,200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay websites and found that more than 90 per cent of the listings breached even eBay's own respective national wildlife policies.

While international wildlife trade laws are complex, in general it is illegal to sell carved or uncarved ivory unless it is antique and accompanied by a proof of age certificate.

On eBay, however, many sellers are being allowed simply to list items with no provenance of legality.

Very few of the suspected illegal items reported by IFAW investigators to eBay during the snapshot survey were removed from sale - eBay UK claims to act within 36 hours to remove prohibited items reported to it.

Of 105 items that were reported to eBay UK as being suspected illegal ivory, IFAW claim that 75 were still listed 48 hours later.

IFAW believes that the only way to protect elephants from poachers is to shut down the markets where illegal ivory can easily be passed off as "antique".

Last week IFAW met with eBay global headquarters to present the findings of "Bidding for Extinction" and welcomed assurances that a review of wildlife policies will take place over the coming weeks.

A spokesman for eBay said: "Stolen items are strictly prohibited from sale on eBay and we're committed to keeping the site free from such items. We certainly do not accept that there are a significant number of stolen items on the site.

"The reality is that we have strong relationships with a wide variety of retailers and law enforcement, and in the small number of cases where potentially stolen items are reported to us, we actively assist the police with their investigations and provide ongoing assistance in securing convictions where appropriate."

Ivory Trade on eBay Threatens Elephants

Bidding for Extinction

By CounterPunch News Service

An investigative report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare reveals how the rampant trade in elephant ivory being carried out across eBay's global network of auction sites is enabling consumers to literally bid for the extinction of the world's largest land mammal.

The snapshot survey conducted in the UK, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the USA* tracked over 2,200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay Web sites and found that more than 90% of the listings breached even eBay's own respective national wildlife policies.

While international wildlife trade laws are complex, in general it is illegal to sell carved or uncarved ivory unless it is antique and accompanied by a proof of age certificate.

On eBay, however, many sellers are being allowed simply to list items with no provenance of legality whatsoever, in blatant contravention of the rules on most eBay Web sites. Worse, eBay's enforcement of their largely vague and variable listing rules appears to be haphazard and hopelessly overstrained. Very few of the suspected illegal items reported by IFAW investigators to eBay during the snapshot survey were removed from sale.

IFAW believes that the only way to protect elephants from poachers is to shut down the markets where illegal ivory can easily be passed off as "antique. "The Internet is an unregulated and anonymous medium which gives criminals ample opportunity to launder contraband undetected," says Peter Pueschel, IFAW's Program Manager for Protection of Wildlife Against Commercial Trade Program. "Constant offers of contraband give a sense of legitimacy to seemingly innocent products and invite consumers to buy frivolously. This deadly business of ivory, which involves the killing of thousands of elephants every year, is on the increase because of the prospects for sky high profits with zero risk."

IFAW believes that as the world's largest online shop window, eBay has a special responsibility to lead the way by banning ivory from its sites. "Only a global ban on all ivory sales will remove the cover under which this criminal activity currently operates and as a result, seriously help to decrease illegal trade and the cruel and unnecessary slaughter of elephants," Comments Pueschel.

Last week IFAW met with eBay global headquarters to present the findings of 'Bidding for Extinction' and welcomed assurances that a review of wildlife policies on a global scale will take place over the coming weeks.

While an internal review of policy by eBay represents a step in the right direction, it remains uncertain how strict and efficient the resulting policy will be to eliminate the massive illegal trade from Ebay Web sites. "This is a chance for eBay to substantiate the company's claim of being not only a leader economically, but also a responsible member of society", says Pueschel. "While we welcome any efforts that decreases trade in ivory, our investigation has shown once again that it is impossible to sufficiently police the market sites on a global scale unless wildlife trade is banned completely."

The illegal international trade in wildlife is believed to reach well into the billions of US dollars annually ­ a nefarious activity that is second in scope only to the international trade in drugs and arms. Reports in the media also indicate that the poaching of wildlife is now being driven by terrorists to raise money for their activities.

"Unless a market site owner undertakes every effort to eliminate this devastating wildlife trade, it must plead guilty to facilitating this dirty business knowingly. While eBay has taken positive steps over the last years, these have not brought desired results. We are now waiting to hear whether they will ban the trade in all ivory on all of their sites, which is the simplest, most cost-effective and efficient way of ensuring they play no part in this criminal trade. Elephants are facing extinction, in no small part because of Internet ivory trade. It is time for action".

  Sure looks as though this issue is not going away too quickly. (and rightfully so!)

Illegal trade in ivory 'boosted by eBay sales'

By Jonathan Brown

Published: 21 May 2007

Elephants at risk from gangs, eBay

POSTED: 1:00 p.m. EDT, May 22, 2007

(CNN) -- Efforts to protect endangered African elephants from the threat of extinction are being undermined by a burgeoning ivory smuggling network run by Asian crime gangs and by a "rampant trade" in illegal ivory on auction Web sites such as eBay, according to two new reports.

Ivory trading has been outlawed since 1989 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), following a collapse in the African elephant population which saw numbers decline from 1.3 million in 1979 to just 300,000 by 1998.

But a new report by wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC warns that large-scale ivory smuggling to Asian countries including China and Japan is threatening to undermine conservation efforts, with around 20,000 elephants still estimated to be poached every year.

Based on an analysis of 12,400 ivory seizures since 1989, the study's main author, Tom Miliken, said that current regulations were having little effect in countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Nigeria.

"With myriad conflict zones, Central Africa is currently hemorrhaging ivory, and these three countries are major conduits for trafficking illicit ivory from the region to international markets, particularly in Asia," said Miliken.

In a separate report, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) claimed last week to have found 2,200 ivory items listed for sale on eBay, most breaching international laws on wildlife trading which limit the sale of ivory items to "antiques" pre-dating 1947.

Future restrictions on ivory trading are due to be discussed at next month's CITES convention at The Hague in the Netherlands with African nations in dispute over the best way forward.

In 2002 a series of one-off sales were allowed by Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, which have healthy and well-monitored populations. Botswana, backed by other southern African countries, now wants to establish an annual quota system that would allow it to export up to eight tons per year.

Shootout

But Kenya, supported by Mali, the DRC and six others, wants a 20-year moratorium on all ivory sales, arguing that any trade encourages poaching.

Kenya, where wildlife tourism is a key source of income, has been battling to control rising levels of animal poaching within its national parks.

Last weekend three park rangers and four suspected poachers were killed in a shootout in the Tsavo East National Park, close to the Somali border, where illegal killings have risen from four in 2003 to 14 last year.

Most smuggled ivory ends up in China, Taiwan or Japan, with the Philippines acting as major transit country, according to TRAFFIC figures. There are currently around 92 ivory seizures a month worldwide, while the number of large hauls of more than one ton has almost doubled in the past eight years.

In August a record three-ton haul of tusks -- estimated to have been taken from approximately 100 elephants -- was confiscated as it was being unloaded from a freighter in Osaka, Japan.

"This demonstrates greater sophistication, organization and finance behind the illegal movement of ever larger volumes of ivory from Africa to Asia," said Susan Lieberman, director of the World Wildlife Fund's Global Species Programme.

Robbie Marsland of the IFAW said that Web sites used to sell ivory and other animal products had a responsibility to ban such activities and welcomed assurances by eBay to review its wildlife policies.

"Only a global ban on all ivory sales will remove the cover under which this criminal activity currently operates," he said. "Failure to do so is tantamount to signing a death sentence for thousands more of these endangered species."

Richard Thomas of Traffic told CNN that Internet sales of ivory was potentially a major problem that was difficult to combat, but said eBay had been good at monitoring and removing anything illegally posted for sale on the site. There were other sites without restrictions in place, he warned.

In a statement reported by Reuters, a spokesman for eBay in London said it operated policies to "restrict the sale of ivory in accordance with existing international law" and was committed to working with IFAW to tackle the problem of illegal ivory sales.