A worldwide ban on the sale of ivory was announced today by the internet shopping site eBay after campaigns by wildlife conservation groups to save endangered elephants from extinction.

From January 1 next year, only “antique” items which contain a small amount of ivory and date from before 1900, will be allowed for sale on the firm’s global market place.

This may include small tables with ivory inlay or an antique piano with ivory keys.

In future, however, items with significant amounts of ivory, regardless of age, such as buttons on clothing, chess sets, ivory brooches and other pieces of jewellery will be banned from sale.

The move, to take effect in 39 countries, is intended to help curb the black market in ivory and the poaching which threatens future populations of Asian and African elephants.

Some 20,000 elephants are believed to be illegally slaughtered every year to meet demand for ivory products.

Organised crime syndicates are involved in a trade which has seen the value of smuggled ivory grow from some £60 per kilogram in 1989 to almost £450 this year.

Many traders have turned to websites to sell these illicit items. Transactions take place so quickly it is often impossible for enforcement agencies to identify the criminals.

The offensive, from eBay, was immediately welcomed by the International Fund for Animal Welfare and WWF which called on other internet traders to follow the example.

The news broke as new evidence from IFAW shows that internet trade in wildlife is posing an immediate threat to the survival of elephants.

A six-week investigation by wildlife conservationists found that sales of elephant ivory items accounted for 73 per cent of 7,000 postings on 186 websites across the globe.

The bulk of trade, however, is done in the US where 70 per cent of ivory sales are being made on shopping websites like eBay. The figure in the UK is just 7.7 per cent.

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