The Killing Fields of Loliondo

By Meitamei Ole Dapash,
The Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition

Is this what you call civilization? Killing innocent animals?
Well, nature will have to judge you by your actions.
—Kailol Ole Pere, Olosira Lukunya/Loliondo resident

Cheetah are among the vulnerable species in the Loliondo area that are hunted as trophies. (Ben Dykes/Born Free Foundation)

An ecological crisis is looming in Loliondo, an area of Maasai ancestral lands in the northern part of Tanzania along the common border with Kenya. Tanzania has become an enormously important destination for trophy hunters from Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East. Regrettably, Tanzania does not recognize Maasai traditional land rights or their right to full access and control of natural resources.

The Ortello Business Company (OBC), a hunting company from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), operates in the Loliondo Game Controlled Area in northern Tanzania with a license that permits hunting of wild game and trapping of live animals to be flown to the UAE. It appears that OBC has a long-term agenda for exploiting the high concentration of wildlife in Loliondo.

According to residents of Loliondo, OBC illegally uses fire to control the movement of wildlife within and around the Loliondo hunting concession. The Maasai Environmental Resource Coalition (MERC) has learned that fires usually are started at the beginning of the prime hunting season to coincide with the great ungulate migration, including wildebeests, zebras, elands, hartebeests, giraffes, and buffaloes. OBC ignites fires along the common border area to prevent animals from crossing into Kenya, where commercial hunting is banned and instead forces them to retreat to hunting areas. The halted migration of large herds of plains game also attracts increased numbers of carnivores—lions, cheetahs, leopards, hyenas, hunting dogs, and jackals. This provides OBC with an opportunity to capture large cats—particularly the much favored lion, cheetah, and leopard—and transport them to UAE.

OBC also employs baiting, a hunting practice that circumvents the need for long searches for  wildlife, especially big cats and hyenas. A common form of baiting used by tourist hunters entails using carcasses to lure animals into traps. In Loliondo, in addition to carcasses, OBC digs artificial watering holes and small dams to lure large numbers of mammals and even birds for easy shooting. According to Loliondo residents, OBC relies heavily on small dams during the dry season to entice large numbers of thirsty animals. Local guides keep watch and radio to OBC when animals head in the direction of the dams. The hunters take cover before the animals arrive and then strike with machine guns.

Night hunting is not a new practice in the world of hunting, but it too is gaining popularity in some parts of Tanzania. In Loliondo, MERC learned that OBC uses powerful spotlights mounted on vehicles to locate animals at night. Blinded and confused, animals stagger in front of vehicles, making them easy targets. This appears to be an exercise in shooting for fun or practice rather than trophy hunting.

Although Tanzanian law only allows tourist hunters to kill males who are no longer active reproductively, OBC personnel and guests shoot and capture animals young and old, male and female, lactating and pregnant. Some of the species that the Maasai say they have seen captured include: lion, leopard, cheetah, impala, baboon, vervet monkey, gerenuk, giraffe, hyena, warthog, and bird species, particularly ostrich. In some cases, dead animals are transported in lorries to nearby non-Maasai communities and sold as bushmeat, potentially encouraging poaching and an illegal market for such flesh. Despite the fact that Tanzanian law forbids foreign tourist hunting companies from utilizing game for commercial purposes, OBC workers take advantage of official hunts to kill animals for their own consumption and sale in the neighboring communities. Maasai do not eat wild game.

The Maasai of Loliondo have for a long time accused OBC of grave human rights abuses and environmental violations. They have described acts of intimidation, harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and even torture by OBC officials and security forces, as well as by Tanzanian police and military in the name of OBC; brazen violations of grazing and land rights; and wanton environmental destruction and extermination of wildlife. They have seen leaders who once opposed OBC’s practices corrupted and bought-off. They have witnessed OBC officials trying to convert Maasai to Islam, with further instruction to abandon Maasai culture.

The Government of Tanzania should sanction an independent investigation team to examine the numerous complaints about OBC’s practices in the field and their impacts on human rights, wildlife, and the environment. This should include an examination of the role of Tanzanian security forces and government officials. The team should be composed of international and Tanzanian experts but should not include members of the Tanzanian government due to allegations of widespread corruption. During the investigation, OBC’s hunting privileges must be suspended.

The killing of wildlife for sport is in itself an offense to the Maasai worldview. Maasai traditionally believe that the present generations hold all natural resources, including the land, in trust for future generations. The killing of wildlife for pleasure or commercial purposes is not permitted. Maasai believe that trophy hunting leads to greed, over-exploitation of wildlife resources, and often irreversible damage to delicate ecosystems. Today’s East Africa owes much of its wildlife prosperity to traditional Maasai conservation practices. This invaluable conservation role has gone largely unappreciated—and worse, in the name of modernity, it continues to be undermined and targeted for elimination.

The Maasai tradition must survive despite foreign influences such as those of OBC. As Lemido Saunae, a Tarangire resident says, “You know, at the end of the day, they will eliminate these animals and then go back to their wealthy homelands and leave us more impoverished than when we had our animals.”