The sale of elephant ivory has been banned by the online vendue mart eBay for a decade , but new research published in the journalTropical Conservation Researchindicates this has done little to staunch its swop on the internet site . lead by researchers from the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology ( DICE ) , the theme describes how computer code words are being employed by seller to mask the illegal items , with many opting to describe the items as carved “ bone . ”
Netsukeis the name pass to carved objects , unremarkably made of elephant ivory , that make up part of the cord attach to Japanese kimonos . tell authentic elephant ivory from carve bone is n’t an easy task for the untrained eye , but Sofia Venturini and Dr David Roberts of DICE were able to assess the authenticity of Netsukes sold on eBay by looking for Schreger business line . These line are unique to elephant bone fix illegal item easier for the pair to plunk out from items made from legal bone .
Not need to contribute to the business deal of illegal animal products from an honourable point of view , they scanned the picture of useable item to discern the materials they were made from . Their investigations give away that elephant tusk was ordinarily being passed off as cow bone in the item descriptions , and only a low percent ( ~1.3 to 6.9 percent ) of these had been identified and taken down by eBay a month later .
In 2008,eBay announcedit was usher in a globular Bachelor of Arts in Nursing on the sales event of bone , starting January 1 , 2009 . It ’s also a founding member of the Coalition to terminate Wildlife Trafficking Online and make with the World Wildlife Fund and the International Fund for Animal Welfare . " We have spherical team dedicated to maintain standards on our marketplace , and over a recent two - twelvemonth period of time we block or removed over 265,000 listings interdict under our animal products policy , " an eBay spokesperson toldCNN Business .
" Despite eBay ’s hard-and-fast policy on Animal and Wildlife Products , there is still an on-going craft in off-white , mostly concealed as other non - restricted material , " said Dr Roberts in astatement . " While detecting illegal sales of ivory items can be particularly unmanageable as , for lesson , the Book “ ivory ” can be used to identify a colour , companies like eBay have the resources and data that could be mobilised to tackle the challenge of illegal wildlife trade . "
Despite information onillegal traffickingand wildlife deal being more available than ever before , the popularity of such items has n’t wane in recent years and while effort continue to be made by governments and law enforcement to shut it down the practice continues to rage on . In 2020 , government officials in China use up stone’s throw to prevent the trade of threaten scaly anteater by removing them from the list of ingredients for items used in traditional medical specialty . Pangolins are one of the most trafficked beast in the Earth and last year were found tocarry coronavirusessimilar to the SARS - CoV-2 pathogen , though at time of writing there is no grounds to suggest they were theintermediate hostthat allow COVID-19 to pass from bats to humans .
