Wildlife Hunting; Rare Birds and Animals Killed by the Wealthy of the Gulf in the Maghreb
Tourism of a special and semi-secret type, known to the vast areas of the North African desert, especially in the Maghreb countries (Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania), whose visitors are often coming from the Gulf countries.
Rich businessmen and princes arrive in four-wheel drive vehicles and set up luxury tents in the North African desert for a few days of devotion to hunting.
The Bustard bird is considered a symbol of the deserts of the Arabian Peninsula. It is the first and traditional prey of falconers, as it poses a great challenge to them and their falcons. Hunting it gives them a sense of pride and victory.
This type of bird is found in southern Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, North Africa and a part of Western Europe, but it is at risk of extinction due to the large number of hunting, which has become intense since the early seventies.
Lack of Censorship
In 2014, the late Emir of Kuwait, Ahmed Jaber Al-Sabah, arrived at the airport in Bouarfa city, located on the Algerian border, east of Morocco.
According to an investigation conducted by the French magazine "JeuneAfrique", Morocco offered Al Thani in 2011 a hunting reserve extending over an area of 45,000 hectares, near the city of Guelmim (south).
The ruler of Dubai, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is a big fan of the area. He even launched a large-scale breeding project in Morocco and tried to offset the losses from hunting in the area through an agreement in 2005.
The project funded by the UAE aims to create protected areas dedicated to this type of endangered bird, as well as working on a strategy to produce more than 20,000 birds annually in an area of 75,000 square kilometers.
The local population denounces the establishment of fenced reserves that prevent nomadic camel herders from reaching the grazing areas, while Dr. Abdelouahed Oufkir tells the specialized Moroccan magazine “Geo-Def”: “It is a real tragedy: to kill these birds, and then protect them, in order to kill them again."
The expert believes that "the time has come for the relevant authorities and associations to mobilize and coordinate among themselves, to put an end to illegal hunting and promote the restoration of wildlife."
These calls are renewed with every "environmental scandal" that is raised, perhaps the last of which was in 2019, when a group of Saudis appeared with about 1,500 lunar birds, celebrating the "great victory". The news circulated widely on social media.
These migratory birds travel between Africa and Europe through the Maghreb countries, and in Morocco it is not permitted to hunt them between June and August of each year. Tourists can only hunt them through the Tourism Fishing Agency that sponsors it and is accredited by the High Commissioner for Water, Forests and Combating Desertification ( Affiliated to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests).
According to the law, the maximum number of lunar birds that can be caught in a day is 50, but this is done illegally.
Commenting on the incident, Ayoub Mahfouz, a member of the National Coordination of Hunting Associations in Morocco, who leads a protest movement against the practices of tourist fishing agencies, said that "they mostly do not care about the fishing quotas imposed in order to attract more tourists."
On the other hand, the government is currently seeking to develop tourism fishing in Morocco by moving from 3,000 to 15,000 tourists by 2024.
Diamond Finder
In June 2020, the UAE Ministry of Climate Change and Environment signed a memorandum of understanding with the International Fund for Bustard Conservation, with the aim of "strengthening cooperation to preserve this living species, which is of environmental importance to the UAE" according to the ministry's statement.
The Ministry states that the International Fund has contributed to the breeding of 480,000 Bustard birds since the beginning of the breeding project, in addition to the production of 60,000 Bustard birds in Abu Dhabi, Morocco and Kazakhstan.
According to the fund’s statistics, the efforts made have contributed to the production of more than 64,000 Bustard (more than 42,000 Asian Bustard, and more than 22,000 North African Bustard) in the period 2018-2019.
The Fund launched joint cooperation programs with 22 countries around the world with the aim of re-breeding and rehabilitating endangered species.
Observers believe that the volume of investments seems "unjustified" to establish such a large number of reserves and farms to protect the Bustard, as the stated goal is to find sustainable wild populations of this endangered bird, which plays a major role in preserving the sport of falconry, which is at the heart of culture and heritage.
In an article published by "Al Jarida 24" website, in which it relied on private sources, it saw a contradiction in declaring the desire to preserve the Bustard bird from extinction, and "removing huge numbers of it, under the pretext of valuing the sport of falconry."
The site stressed that "the Gulf people are reaping enormous wealth from the Bustard, enabling them to cover the major investments that arise in the land of Morocco to drain its wealth from these rare birds."
The article explained that, "Fierce wars are taking place in secret between the wealthy of the Gulf on the land of Morocco to win the largest numbers of Bustard Bustards, the "discoverer of diamonds", which feed on shiny materials at night, enabling over years to collect fragments of this most expensive gemstone in the world. According to specialists, "the bird is deported to special laboratories to extract quantities of diamonds."
Planned Massacre
Nearly 42 years after the statement of the former Tunisian Minister of Agriculture, Hassan Belkhouda, in 1979, in which he announced the rejection of the talk of a Saudi prince about Bustard hunting in Tunisia, the madness of this game continues.
The late President of Tunisia Zine El Abidine Ben Ali complimented the Saudis by allowing them to hunt Bustard, and southern Tunisia was divided into 5 hunting areas specifically designated for the princes of the ruling family.
Environmental associations in Tunisia condemn this, and consider that the wealthy of the Gulf have turned classic hunting parties into a real war, among them “Tunisia Ecology,” which says in the words of its president, Abdel Majid Debar: “It is illegal hunting that does not respect any of the biological rhythms of animals.”
The association is active in the field of protecting ecosystems and species, including the Bustard, a species that is still wild in Tunisia, while excessive hunting has eliminated it in Morocco and the Middle East. Not a sport, but a planned massacre."
According to Dabar, "a plot of land to feed the Bustard or gazelle is sold for between 70 and 350 euros, while a baby bird is sold for 90,000 euros," saying: "Illegally, travel agencies have specialized in providing such services to desert princes via the Internet."
The investigation of the French-language magazine revealed that areas near Algeria and Libya in Tunisia were at the disposal of fishing enthusiasts from the Gulf, equipped with a helipad and four-wheel drive vehicles. According to local media, in 2008, the two countries also became a private nature reserve in the Tunisian desert.
Nice Comments
Until the 1980s, Gulf princes who hunted in Morocco and Tunisia had not set their sights on the vast Algerian expanses, home to an abundance of the two most exciting types of hunters' guns, the Dorcas gazelle and the Bustard.
Both species were prohibited from hunting by presidential decree issued on August 20, 1983, until Abdelaziz Bouteflika came to power in 1999.
Bouteflika opened the Algerian desert as a hunting ground for the princes of the Emirates, who continued to feel gratitude towards them, after they embraced him and made him their advisor after he was dismissed from the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs and accused of embezzlement, with the death of Colonel Houari Boumediene in 1978.
As friends and guests of the president, the Gulf lords enjoyed special treatment in Algeria, with the best places to be hunted and camped, and in the south, escorts from the National Gendarmerie mobilized to ensure their safety and local guides provided to find the best places.
On January 9, 2020, while appearing before the Court of Appeal, former Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia admitted the source of his wealth, which amounts to 600 million dinars ($3.73 million) in his four bank accounts.
The money, according to the defendant's confessions, came from reselling gold bars on the black market, which were given to him by a number of Gulf princes during their many adventures in Algeria, especially hunting parties in the desert or in the highlands.
Hunting methods were described as "destructive", and their vehicles destroy thin and fragile vegetation, and according to environmental activists, "on a good hunting ground, one hunter can kill 20 to 30 squid per day, as for the dorka deer, once they are spotted, the princes are satisfied with following them with their cars until they collapse from exhaustion."
"After these animals perished," according to the concerned associations, two breeding centers were established, one for the Bustard and the other for the Dorcas gazelle, in 2018, in the state of El Bayadh (southwest of Algeria), one of the best hunting reserves in the country. For his part, the ruler of Dubai made a "donation" in 2017 to Algeria with 500 gazelles.
Pictures of eviscerated deer that are left in the desert every year, arouse public anger, and in 2016 the residents of the “Wadi Souf” region- northeast of the Algerian desert - decided to take matters into their own hands, through a campaign to scare the deer and expel them away from the areas invaded by wealthy Gulf tourists.
