Internet giant pledges to help in fight against illegal wildlife trade

To celebrate the International Day of Biological Diversity on May 22, Chinese technology company Tencent has announced a cooperation with two international conservation organizations — The Nature Conservancy and International Fund for Animal Welfare — to launch a joint campaign to fight the illegal wildlife trade online.

Called Tencent for the Planet, the campaign aims to restrict information on the illegal wildlife trade on social networks and raise public awareness of the harmful affects of the consumption of wildlife products, especially ivory products.

According to IFAW Asia regional director Ge Rui, the wild elephant population in Africa has declined 25 percent in the past 40 years because of the illegal ivory trade. It was estimated that 100,000 elephants were slaughtered between 2012 and 2014. Market demand for ivory led to the killings of elephants and the illegal ivory trade, she said at the launch ceremony in Beijing.

"The market can be both substantial and online," she said. "Although the Internet has become an area of illegal wildlife trading, it's also the most promising place to save wildlife. Anti-illegal wildlife trade on social networks is certainly Internet giant Tencent’s best gift to a giant of nature – the elephant."

TNC CEO Mark Tercek said: "Every year there are 25,000 elephants poached because of the ivory trade. We need more allies like Tencent to work together to save the species."

As one of the country's largest online information providers and platforms, Tencent realized that illegal wildlife trade chain has sprawled deeply onto the Internet, said Guo Kaitian, Tencent senior executive vice-president. In March of this year, the company put a number of public or personal accounts involving in illegal wildlife trade into a blacklist on its popular social media WeChat.

By launching a WeChat public account, "Tencent for the Planet", Guo said that the company will provide a platform to receive public tip-offs on illegal wildlife trade and raise environmental awareness.