A conservation group claims that Google has something in common with illicit ivory traders in China and Thailand – it says the internet search giant is helping fuel a dramatic surge in ivory demand in Asia which is killing African elephants at record levels.

Large seizures of elephant tusks have made this year the worst on record since ivory sales were banned in 1989, with recent estimates suggesting as many as 3,000 elephants were killed by poachers, experts said today.

Vast areas of forest are being illegally felled to fuel a demand for cheap furniture in the West, environment watchdogs said today.

Illegal logging in Indonesia’s Papua province is rampant and much of the illicit wood is smuggled to China to feed the country’s voracious appetite for lumber, environmentalists said.

THEY are the largest and most spectacular mammals on earth, but commercial slaughter and the continued pollution of the oceans is threatening the future of whales.