eBay Bans Cross-border Ivory Trading

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Thousands of animals and wildlife products – many of them illegal – are being sold on the Internet each day. An IFAW investigation in 2005 uncovered more than 9,000 products made from endangered species available on the Web in just one week across a wide variety of sites, including ivory products.

With 33 national web sites, eBay provides a global online marketplace where “practically anyone can trade practically anything.” Following the release of IFAW’s Bidding for Extinction report which outlined these shocking results, IFAW met with eBay senior officials in the USA and across Europe. As a result, eBay agreed to ban the cross-border trade in elephant ivory products on its sites around the globe at the end of June.

In its announcement, eBay stated that in addition to this international ban, clearer and stricter policies would be implemented on a national level for in-country ivory auctions. It remains to be seen if their new policies will be effective and actually reduce the number of ivory items offered on their sites. However, it is already clear that IFAW’s pressure on eBay – including more than 10,000 messages to eBay's headquarters from IFAW supporters over a single weekend – helped secure this decision.

Download a copy of IFAW’s report, Bidding for Extinction

Song of the Whale Tours Europe

	The Song of the Whale crew at work

From August 2006 to March 2007, Song of the Whale traveled to England, Belgium, the Netherlands and France on an educational tour. More than 3,400 people visited IFAW’s state-of-the-art marine mammal research and education vessel. Several receptions were also held for government ministers and donors to generate support for IFAW’s marine conservation efforts. Scientists from several countries served as interns with IFAW researchers.

The team began working in the eastern Mediterranean Sea in May to monitor sperm whales as part of an ongoing collaboration between IFAW, local research groups and ACCOBAMS (Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area). A wide variety of human activities threaten the continued existence of marine life in the Mediterranean Sea.

Visit IFAW’s Stop Whaling Blog to follow the research journeys of the Song of the Whale.

Emergency Relief Update

Two rhino orphans and six rescued young elephants were released to Manas National Park by the Centre for Rehabilitation and Conservation in India. Numerous raptors were rehabilitated and released by the Beijing Raptor Rescue Center in China and twelve bear cubs were raised at the Orphan Bear Cub Rehabilitation Project in Russia, including three malnourished cubs who arrived late in the season.

To help with future animal relief efforts, IFAW acquired a mobile command center. A donation from PetSMART Charities funded the purchase of satellite phones and other equipment that enables animal rescue responders to maintain communications from disaster sites even when phone lines are down. Thanks to a new partnership, we also purchased an IFAW/Petfinder.com Foundation animal rescue trailer and truck to care for and transport animals in the wake of disaster. Contributions from the Bafflin Foundation, the Martha Morse Foundation and others helped in this tremendous capacity-building initiative.

Read more about IFAW’s relief work at the Animal Rescue Blog

World Condemns Japanese Whaling

	Patrick Ramage, IFAW’s Program Manager for Whales, and his son Henry on the IFAW Whale Plane

The International Whaling Commission (IWC), which met in Anchorage, Alaska in May, adopted resolutions condemning Japanese whaling. Sadly, a resolution proposing the establishment of a South Atlantic marine sanctuary did not pass and Japan’s plan to kill 50 humpback whales still stands. Despite these results, the IFAW team that attended the meeting was pleased that pro-whaling nations did not gain a voting majority.

To galvanize public support for whales in the USA, IFAW launched a cross-country “Whale Plane” tour which delivered children’s artwork and pro-whale messages to the IWC. IFAW also initiated CARIBwhale, an organization that promotes responsible whale watching in the Caribbean, and supported floating marine education classrooms and a whale watch tour guide training workshop there. 

Watch video from IFAW’s Whale Plane Tour