History of OBC in Tanzania
OBC is undoubtedly involved in very unethical practices–killing wildlife and threatening and/or bribing people to keep quiet. Police, wildlife authorities, politicians, and community village leaders have all fallen into this trap. So, who will save Loliondo’s endangered wildlife?
Kairung Ole Saipere, Loliondo resident
Although government-sanctioned hunting activities in Tanzania date back to the nineteenth century, the industry witnessed dramatic growth in the 1990s when the government shifted from state-controlled to market-driven economic policies. Between 1965 and 1989, for instance, there were only an estimated 47 blocks set aside for hunting. However, between 1990 and 1997, the number increased to 140, nearly tripling in just seven years. This sharp increase in the number of hunting blocks reflects the importance the government of Tanzania had come to attach to commercial trophy hunting and to the hunting industry as a whole. Today, Tanzania attracts hunters from Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East.
The administration of former president Ali Hassan Mwinyi granted the entire Loliondo Game Controlled Area (LGCA) as a hunting concession to the Ortello Business Company Limited (OBC), a game-hunting firm based in the United Arab Emirates. The government licensed OBC for hunting activities and allocated it hunting blocks on January 1, 1993. OBC’s license permits hunting of wild game and trapping of some live animals to be flown to the UAE. The people of Loliondo were not party to this agreement and, in fact, were not meaningfully consulted.
OBC is owned by Brigadier Mohamed Abdul Rahim Al Ali, deputy minister of defense of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and his associates. Brigadier Al Ali is believed to be a member of, or closely linked to, the royal family of the UAE. He is known locally as "Brigadier," a name feared throughout Loliondo.
The history of OBC in Tanzania first garnered attention in 1992 when Brigadier Al Ali submitted a formal request to president Mwinyi’s government for exclusive concessionary rights over Loliondo Game Controlled Area for a period of 20 years in exchange for an unspecified fee. In the proposal, Brigadier Al Ali outlined the benefits of his operations in Loliondo to the central and district government, the local communities, and wildlife conservation in the Serengeti-Maasai Mara-Ngorongoro ecosystem. "The vision," the proposal claimed, "is to demonstrate to all the seriousness that the Arab world is giving to wildlife conservation…" The proposal promised to deliver what other hunting operations had not done in the country’s centuries-old industry. Among the most important objectives of the proposal were:
The OBC now stands accused of self-contradiction and violation of legal and moral obligations in virtually all the above areas, resulting instead in environmental destruction; unfulfilled promises and economic exploitation of the local communities; and direct undermining of the stability of the region’s wildlife and natural habitats.
Sources in the central government and Tanzania National Parks Authority (TANAPA) told MERC that the application did not go through normal channels for approval or consideration, nor did it receive any expert evaluation. Instead, it was hurriedly approved, and hunting licenses were issued following instructions from the office of the President. Since its inception, OBC’s operations in Tanzania are widely believed to have involved large-scale government corruption. It is unclear if former president Mwinyi himself has a stake in OBC, but it seems clear that the corporation enjoys protection from senior authorities in Tanzania. A joint team of Tanzania’s elite paramilitary wing, the Full Force Unit (FFU), and members of the UAE army provide the hunting company with security, and a significant Tanzanian police presence is the norm. The UAE royal family has given the Tanzanian army a passenger aircraft and has provided the Wildlife Division with vehicles to reciprocate the Tanzanian government’s continued protection of OBC’s interests in Maasailand.
After five years, stakeholders, including the central government, the district council, Maasai communities, and OBC were supposed to review and consider renewal of the contract between OBC and the government. No renegotiation occurred; Maasai community members were merely informed that OBC will remain, and the government had sealed a deal.
The desperation of the Maasai over continued marginalization and alienation from their land and resources is captured in the following words of an elder to whom MERC spoke on July 23, 2001, at Ololosokuwan village:
The government and, indeed, justice are not on our side. We have been forced to accept things as they are because we have no power to stand up against this Arab.
In light of a recommendation by a 1994 parliamentary commission charged with investigating the practices of OBC, the Tanzanian government briefly revoked OBC’s license in 1999 because it was flying too many animals out of the country. However, the license was reissued in 2000 and will not expire until 2005.