NGO asks Jack Ma's Alibaba to stop selling clapnets for birds

Jack Ma's Alibaba once again faces accusations from environmental protection activists who demand the e-commerce giant’s Taobao to stop selling bird-catching clapnets.

Beijing-based NGO the China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) on Tuesday delivered a letter to Alibaba to demand a halt on clapnet sales on Taobao, which has been reportedly rampant.

"Compared with other hunting facilities, clapnet is easy to get. They have smaller meshes than other nets, hence making them into devastating hunting machine for birds," said the letter.

It added that most clapnets are homemade products and many are sold online. "Taobao, providing the trading platform, has helped promote such poaching activity," the letter argued, expressing hope for Alibaba to start screening on its online stores and give a ban on clapnet sales.

The CBCGDF noted that it will reserve its rights to solve the issue through environmental public litigation.

According to CBCGDF, many birds in China have been listed as endangered or critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Taobao has been embroiling with criticism from environmental protectionists for years, as all kinds of poaching tools could be found blatantly or secretly being sold within Taobao stores.

A search for a "bird-catching clapnet" on Taobao did not yield any results at the time of press, and the search engine said the item is against related regulations and laws. However, many shops are still selling "bird nets" to keep off birds from plantation gardens, with some pictures demonstrating the birds struggling within the net.