LOLIONDO, Tanzania — Whistleblowers speaking to Mongabay have reported instances of poaching over decades in Tanzania linked to a luxury hunting firm catering to the United Arab Emirates’ elites and royals. The insiders are from Ortello — sometimes spelled Otterlo — Business Corporation (OBC), which operates shoots in Loliondo, part of Tanzania’s northern Ngorongoro district. Interviews with the sources, who requested pseudonyms due to safety concerns, provide a rare insight into OBC-organized hunting expeditions, which attracted members of UAE royalty and their associates at least once or twice a year from the 1990s until as late as 2016. They report that some of these trips culminated in live animals being flown abroad. Exports of live wildlife have been outlawed in Tanzania since 2016 to protect rare animals and birds. In 2022, lawmakers swiftly reversed a controversial decision to lift the ban that had been in place for six years. The sources’ testimony comes as Tanzanian authorities have served waves of eviction notices affecting Maasai pastoralists in and around Loliondo, as part of efforts to lease 1,500 square kilometers (580 square miles) of ancestral land to OBC. In 2023, an Amnesty International report condemned government forces for violence and mass arrests that left an estimated 70,000 Maasai without access to their traditional grazing areas. To verify the whistleblowers’ allegations as fully as possible, we observed OBC’s hunting estate, interviewed nearby villagers and obtained court documents, company filings and shipping records. Based in Dubai, OBC was registered as a foreign company in…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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