On the Internet, Illegal Trade In Endangered Wildlife Thrives

Ted Williams writes on Yale e360 about the challenges experienced by both law enforcement and online marketplaces to bring an end to illegal trade in endangered wildlife on the internet.

The world’s largest online marketplace by far, eBay, is one of the few that makes a serious effort to control wildlife smuggling by deleting ads for illegal products — but only the few it notices or hears about. Chris Nagano of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Endangered Species Division is a trained lepidopterist. When I asked him if he sees any ads for illegal butterflies on eBay he replied: “There are a number of imperiled butterflies openly advertised on eBay, including some listed under the Endangered Species Act or protected under laws of countries they inhabit. Some of these species are sold to collectors for hundreds or even thousands of dollars.” […] The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service doesn’t have a cyber crimes unit, but IFAW’s findings inspired it to launch undercover stings in 2011 and 2012 called respectively Operation Cyberwild and Operation Wild Web.

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Source: On the Internet, Illegal Trade In Endangered Wildlife Thrives

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