29/07/2019

OLX Group joins the Coalition To End Online Wildlife Trafficking

Amsterdam, 29 July 2019

OLX Group has announced it is joining the Coalition To End Wildlife Trafficking Online. The Coalition brings together leading NGOs TRAFFIC, WWF, and IFAW and global tech companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Tencent, in a partnership to stop wildlife traffickers from operating via online products and platforms.

Recent years have seen a rise in the buying and selling of illegal wildlife products such as elephant ivory, tiger cubs, pangolin scales and rhinoceros horn. The Coalition aims to prevent the sale of these illegal products through cooperation between members.

“At OLX Group we are constantly looking for ways to help our users trade safer and smarter. Joining the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online is an exciting way for us to do more to protect the precious biodiversity that is so important to sustain life on our planet” affirms Chris Sherwood, Head of Policy OLX Group.

As part of the agreement, TRAFFIC, WWF, and IFAW will provide OLX Group with updated global and regional trade trend data, training materials, policy guidance and educational information for users to help spot illegal products.

OLX Group will work with the NGO partners to develop a customised action plan. The plan will include updating OLX Group’s existing wildlife policies across all its brands, developing technology that can identify illegal products, training staff, and raising awareness of illegal trade among our users. The aim is to stop illegal wildlife trade across our platforms and apps.

“OLX Group is a vital new partner, and brings greater hope that together we can blanket the internet with like-minded companies to make trafficking in wildlife online a thing of the past. Thank you OLX Group, we look forward to making this vision a reality” says Crawford Allan, Senior Director at TRAFFIC.

The members of the Coalition to End Wildlife Trafficking Online have agreed the goal of collectively reducing wildlife trafficking online by 80% by 2020.

For more info:

https://www.endwildlifetraffickingonline.org/

About OLX Group

OLX Group is among the world’s fastest-growing marketplace networks, serving more than 350 million people every month. We build leading destinations for buying, selling, and exchanging products and services, operating more than 20 consumer brands across five continents, including Avito, letgo, dubizzle, OLX and many more. Our technology is designed to help people trade almost anything in safe, smart and convenient ways. We facilitate approximately 17 million exchanges every month, from cars and furniture to electronics and clothing. By encouraging reuse and recycling, we help reduce waste and give items second, third, or even fourth lives. For more information, please visit www.olxgroup.com.

About TRAFFIC

TRAFFIC is a leading non-governmental organisation working globally on trade in wild animals and plants in the context of both biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Its mission is to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. More information at www.traffic.org