The International Fund for Animal Welfare (www.ifaw.org) announced today that Alibaba (www.taobo.com.cn), the world's largest business-to-business and outsource portal site for traders worldwide, has agreed to ban all online trade in elephant ivory, sea turtle, and shark fin. In addition, Alibaba has strengthened its internal control of wildlife products traded to accord to international and national regulations. Alibaba's announcement comes nearly a year after eBay, working with IFAW, agreed to ban the sale of all ivory products.
The milestone decision was made following a year long collaboration between IFAW and Alibaba's partner site, Taobao.com to raise awareness about the unsustainable and cruel trade of wildlife on the Internet. IFAW encourages netizens to report online wildlife crime activities and helps portal sites filter out advertisements of wildlife products. To date, 333 wildlife product advertisements and 5 traders registered from Cameron, USA, and Canada have been removed from the Alibaba site.
Grace Gabriel, IFAW's Asia Regional Director said, "From eBay to Taobao to Alibaba, a growing number of internet sites are taking responsibilities to protect the world's precious wildlife from the threat of trade. It is a very encouraging trend."