Internet retail giant Rakuten is terminating sales of whale products through its Japanese marketplace Rakuten Ichiba and has given merchants 30 days to remove them. The move came after EIA launched the report Blood e-Commerce, exposing Rakuten as the world’s biggest online marketplace for ivory and whale meat products
Australia took Japan to the ICJ in 2010, alleging it was intentionally taking advantage of a loophole in the 1986 commercial whaling ban by claiming it was killing the whales for scientific research. The Court ruled overwhelmingly in favour of Australia
The report “Blood e-Commerce: Rakuten’s profits from the slaughter of elephants and whales” – released by the EIA in conjunction with Humane Society International (HSI) – reveals that the company’s Japanese website carries more than 28,000 ads for elephant ivory products and some 1,200 whale meat products ads
Experts estimate approximately 50,000 elephants were killed in 2013 to satisfy the demand for ivory – largely from China. This level of poaching has not been seen since the 1980s. Without urgent action to end the ivory trade now, elephants may soon become extinct in parts of their range in Africa and Asia
Just days before UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s landmark Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency has set out the key actions it believes are essential to tackle the international organised criminal networks plundering the environment
As the annual international conference on climate change (CoP19) draws to a close in Warsaw, the Environmental Investigation Agency criticised India and Saudi Arabia for blocking an agreement which could prevent the release of up to 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions by 2050