Photo: Change.org
The recent tragic death of Yongki, a much-beloved Sumatran elephant, served as a reminder that critically endangered elephants are still being killed for their ivory in Indonesia. But it also helped galazanive people to put a stop to another practice contributing to elephant poaching – the sale of ivory products online.
Ivory products were previously being sold through three major Indonesian online stores: Bukalapak, Lazada, and Tokopedia. It took an online petition from Change.org to put an end to that.
The petition, which was started by veterinarian Wisnu Wardana, urged the online marketplace companies to shut down users who sold ivory products and to prohibit them in the future. As of this morning, more than 27 thousand people had already signed it.
The petition certainly had the desired effect, as all three online stores now no longer have ivory products for sale.
“We acted quickly to freeze and deactivate accounts that sold elephant ivory products on our website. As per the terms of use, Bukalapak.com reserves the right to deactivate accounts that sell illegal products,” said Bukalapak CEO Achmad Zaky, as quoted by Merdeka today.
Lazada and Tokopedia also both apologized for the oversight and have taken similar steps to ensure their users don’t sell ivory products.
While the three online stores aren’t entirely to blame, since the products on their websites are user generated, it is their responsibility to monitor and approve of every product that’s sold through their websites. But they did act quickly and overall this is a great step forward for environmentally friendly consumerism in Indonesia.
