Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO), eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY), and Etsy Inc (NASDAQ:ETSY) are some of the major tech companies that will be playing key roles in Friday’s World elephant day. The leading e-commerce and social media companies have joined forces that will endeavor to bring to a halt illegal online wildlife trafficking. They have vowed to do anything within their power to humiliate wildlife cyber criminals. Some of the actions they will take include closing the loopholes that facilitate online wildlife trafficking as well as bringing down any online posts that will be endangering the wildlife animal.
The problem of Online trafficking of wildlife parts has persisted for the last three years. Estimations indicate that in every 15minutes at least one elephant is killed for purposes of illegal trade in ivory trinkets. The three-year period has seen approximately 100,000 elephants killed. Apparently, tigers, rhinos, and pangolins are also facing the risk of poaching and the more reason there is active involvement of corporations in enforcing policies that will help in protecting some of the world’s most endangered species.
Voluntary coalition of organizations and non-profits organization will combat the illegal trade
Tania McCrea-Steele, the global wildlife cybercrime project lead for the International Fund for Animal Welfare emphasizes that everyone must agree to play an active role in protecting the future of these magnificent creatures. US Wildlife Trafficking Alliance (USWTA) has already joined in drumming up support for the same. Nonetheless, there is so much optimism that the coalition of the tech companies is just the beginning of success in fighting the illegal trade worth a yearly estimated of $10 billion.
According to Senior Vice President of WWF, Ginette Hemley, it is such a fundamental step in eliminating the internet as a getaway for wildlife traffickers. A ban on the ivory sales is already in place having been affected in 2009 by eBay. With a united front by the mainstream global companies Crawford Allan, Senior Director Wildlife Crime, TRAFFIC agrees that it is possible ultimately to shrink the potential market access for wildlife criminals. It is so encouraging to see social media platforms share a common interest of stamping out the poaching crisis.
