Dubai, United Arab Emirates (CNN) – Researchers have found that elephant ivory is still being sold on eBay despite the internet market banning it more than a decade ago.
Researchers from the Durrell Conservation and Environment Institute at the University of Kent in England said in a statement on Monday that sellers misrepresent the materials used in certain elements and sometimes use “code words” to hide the illegal products.
In 2008, eBay announced that it would impose a global ban on the sale of ivory starting January 1, 2009.
“Despite eBay’s strict policy on animal and wildlife products, there is still an ongoing trade in ivory, most of which is hidden as other, unrestricted materials,” co-author David Roberts said in a statement.
Roberts also added that uncovering the illegal sales of ivory can be difficult, as the word “ivory” can be used to describe the color “ivory.” “Companies like eBay have the resources and data” that can be put into place to tackle the illegal trade in wildlife, Roberts says.
An eBay spokesperson said the company is a founding member of the Coalition to End the Online Wildlife Trade and works with the World Wildlife Fund and the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
In a statement to CNN, an eBay spokesperson said: “We have global teams dedicated to upholding standards in our market, and over the last two years, we have banned or removed more than 265,000 products banned under our animal products policy.”
Roberts and fellow researcher Sophia Venturini found that some descriptions of netsuki – carved objects often made of elephant ivory and associated with Japanese kimonos – distorted the elements in the product.
Netsuki products made from elephant ivory are often described as made of bone, according to the researchers, who were able to identify ivory elements by checking product images with Schreiger’s lines – a unique pattern found on ivory.
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