Controversial conservationists the Varty brothers are negotiating to move their ambitious tiger rehabilitation project to India after their deal with the Chinese government unravelled.
The Chinese deal would have seen captive-born tiger cubs being “trained” to be wild at a sanctuary near the Karoo and then released into nature reserves in China.
The deal has become the subject of a bitter Johannesburg High Court battle between the Vartys and their former partners in the project, London-based businesspeople Li Quan and Stuart Bray.
For the past three years John Varty and his wife, former TV newsreader Gillian van Houten, have been rehabilitating two Bengal tigers, called Ron and Julie, at a sanctuary near Philippolis in the Free State.
The two tigers were seven months old when they were brought to South Africa from a Canadian zoo in early 2000. They are now in their adolescence and weigh about 250kg each. They are hunting for themselves and are on their way to self-sufficiency.
Dave Varty, the business brother, says they are talking to officials from Orissa province in India about releasing Ron and Julie’s offspring there. Orissa is India’s most poverty-stricken province and the idea is to encourage tiger conservation initiatives that will benefit local communities.
“There are five parks in Orissa and they are devoid of tigers. We will move heaven and earth to put our tigers into the wilds. If we can hold this thing together, we will be sending wild-born tigers into India,” he says.
India has about half of the world’s remaining tiger population, estimated to total between 3 000 and 7 000. These magnificent big cats are facing extinction largely because of growing human populations and loss of home range.
The rehabilitation of Ron and Julie in the vast, open spaces of the Karoo is a pioneering experiment to establish whether it is possible to rehabilitate zoo-bred tigers. Other parts of the project involve using them as pathfinders in scientific debates on tiger sub-species and as models to show world leaders how conservation projects can benefit regional economies.
Dave Varty says he is saddened by Bray and Quan’s decision to pull the plug on the Chinese part of their project. This involved rehabilitating the world’s most endangered tiger sub-species — the South China tiger, of which less than 100 are left — at the Karoo sanctuary and returning them to reserves set aside by the Chinese government.
The Vartys have asked the Johannesburg High Court to prevent Bray and Quan from alienating their interests in a complex structure of companies set up to carry out the Chinese part of the project.
They are also asking for a curator to take charge of the project and to be allowed to continue with their rehabilitation of Ron and Julie.
In proceedings that have made newspaper headlines, Quan and Bray have accused the Vartys of misusing almost R40-million they contributed to buying land for the tiger sanctuary, of theft and deceit.
Quan, who founded an organisation called Save China’s Tigers in 2000, is married to Bray, a financial adviser who put up the money for the project.
The Vartys commissioned a forensic investigation by PriceWaterhouseCoopers that found no funds were misappropriated and that all the project’s accounts were transparent. They have also instituted defamation proceedings against Quan and Bray.
Dave Varty says Bray was providing loan funding for the project, the Vartys were paying interest on it and there was a structure in place that enabled the Vartys, at their election, to repay the loan.
“We always intended to repay the loan, so on the surface of things there was no real risk for Bray. If we paid him all his money, he would end up owning 40% of the sanctuary. If we did not exercise that option, his loan funding would have converted to equity and he owns 75% of the sanctuary.
“He was getting a good deal. There was no misappropriation of funds. If they feel their money was badly allocated, that’s a different matter.”
Bray denies the money was a loan. He says it was put up only for the acquisition of land, fencing and for buying prey for the South China tigers to be introduced to the sanctuary.
The China project proceeded until late last year when, depending on whose story you believe, relations started unravelling.
According to Quan, the breaking point came last October when the Vartys refused to sign an undertaking with the Chinese government and instead demanded money for “training” the tigers as well as Chinese game rangers.
Dave Varty denies they ever stepped away from the Chinese deal and points out that agreements signed between the parties in late November 2002 indicated that the project was still on track.
He says the relationship fell apart in January, when Quan came across an article in a local car magazine while she was visiting South Africa. The article was about a car dealer’s sponsorship of the sanctuary and featured John Varty and Van Houten.
He maintains Quan aims to take control of the entire tiger project, and particularly the lucrative media and filming rights. Quan denies this.
Part of Quan’s quest with the China tigers is to use them as the national mascot of the Olympic Games that will be hosted in Beijing in 2008.
This week she announced that she has set up a Chinese tiger management team to take her project forward. Her team includes Gus van Dyk, who works with predators at Pilanesburg National Park; Dylan Smith, presently employed at Madikwe Game Reserve in the North West; and Brian Boswell, of Boswell zoo and circus fame.
Judgement in the Vartys’ Johannesburg High Court application, which will determine who takes the Karoo tiger rehabilitation project forward while the web of legal allegations is sorted out, is expected on April 25.
Read more about the tiger rehabilitation project in Earthyear magazine, on sale now