Online trade has become a new outlet for illegal wildlife businesses posing significant challenge for conservation efforts, said international animal protection activists on Thursday.

"The rise of online trade is contributing to the rapid growth of illegal trade in wildlife, as it is fast, convenient and anonymous," said Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia regional director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

Internet trade of wildlife poses a significant and immediate threat to the survival of many endangered species, she said, quoting a recent IFAW report named "Killing with Keystrokes An Investigation of the Illegal Wildlife Trade on the World Wide Web."

Over six weeks, the IFAW found 183 Web sites in 11 countries, containing more than 7,000 illegal wildlife product lists. Items for sale included ivory, tiger pelts and monkeys.

The total value of those items reached US$38 million.

America had the largest number of illegal wildlife items for sale on the Internet. Great Britain came in second followed by China which had more than 500 illegal wildlife products for sale on Chinese websites.

More efforts should be devoted to stopping this trade in China as the country has more than 1400 endangered species as well as the largest netizen population of 210 million, said Gabriel.

Meng Xianlin, deputy director of China's Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office, said that new access to illegal wildlife trade makes it difficult to control.

"Online trade is too fast, which makes it hard to collect evidence. This will be a long-term challenge for us," Meng said.

Meng's opinion was echoed by Geng Yongping, an official of the Public Security Bureau for Forestry. Geng called for a summit about online wildlife trade to gauge the country's current situation.

China's leading online trade website, Taobao.com, and IFAW on Thursday jointly launched a month-long campaign to raise awareness about illegal wildlife trade.

Consumers on Taobao will be given online store credit for reporting any illegal wildlife products or trades, said Ni Liang, senior manager of the Trust and Safety Department of Taobao.com.

Chinese Laws regarding wildlife trade have also been publicized on the site, Ni said. Violators of those laws face fines, jail time or even death.

Some 1420 wildlife items on Taobao.com have been eliminated and263 illegal e-stores closed down just this year, Meng said.

According to Gabriel, more than 95 percent of illegal wildlife products have been eliminated by Chinese website companies since IFAW started its campaign to end the online trade in China in 2005.

"Joint efforts from the whole society, including the government, non-governmental organizations, website companies and the public, is the only way to fight illegal online trade," Gabriel said.

(Xinhua News Agency November 21, 2008)