The growing trade in wildlife on the Internet in China means the battle to curb the illegal practice must be taken online, environmentalists said Thursday.

A recent six-week study by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) tracked 7,122 online auctions and advertisements involving the illegal trade in wild animals and found that the Internet is posing a major challenge to wildlife conservation, with China ranked third after the United States and the United Kingdom among 11 countries investigated with respect to volume of illegal trade.

Among the online auctions and ads, 544 took place in China.

More than half of the auctions and ads are posted on the Taobao.com website, the investigation said.

The prevalent wildlife trade violations identified in China during the investigation concerned elephant ivory, followed by reptiles, especially sea turtles.

The two accounted for nearly 90 percent of the total advertisements observed, according to the investigation.

"The online trade of wild animals is developing into an urgent problem, because the Internet provides a hidden stage for illegal traders," Meng Xianlin, deputy director of the Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office said Thursday.

Early in 2005, the State Forestry Administration (SFA), an agency tasked with implementing wildlife controls, said it will crack down on online trading of endangered species.

In order to crack down on online animal sales, the IFAW and Taobao.com jointly launched a month-long campaign Thursday.

Taobao.com will put a notice on its homepage to encourage people to inform it of the sale of wildlife.

People who report illegal activities can get IFAW gifts and wildlife conservation information.

"It is extremely satisfying to see the results of our investigation get the attention of society," Ge Rui, IFAW's Asia regional director, said.

"Money earned in the illegal international trade in wildlife is second only to the international trade in illegal drugs and arms. Humans' greed drives the trade," Feng Yonglin, an SFA official said Thursday.

This year, Taobao.com discovered 1,420 sales involving illegal trade in wild animals and blocked 263 members and stores online, Ni Liang, senior manager of Taobao said Thursday.

Investigators noted a large bowl made from rhinoceros horn that was among the most expensive listings discovered during the global investigation, offered at US$23,317 on the website, a polar bear skin for US$25,825 and a 12 cm tiger tooth for US$1,873 this year.

On Nov 15 last year, Suzhou customs cracked an international illegal trade of two complete Asian elephant tusks worth 500,000 yuan.

(China Daily November 21, 2008)