Do not ‘engage formally’: UK officials advised against billionaire-run zoo ahead of CITES meeting

Internal U.K. government communications obtained by Mongabay and The Guardian show environment officials explicitly advised government ministers this summer not to “engage formally” with the controversial Indian zoo Vantara after its lobbyists tried to secure a meeting.The main reasons for the advice included “reputational sensitivities” and “ongoing compliance proceedings” involving the zoo. Vantara declined to respond to Mongabay’s questions about U.K. concerns.The documents, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, also revealed that Vantara received 152 permits over three years to transfer animals to Vantara. Government officials raised concerns over applications by Vantara to import falcons and falcon hybrids after a 50,000 pounds “donation” from an unnamed source to a U.K. falcon exporter.In Geneva, the U.K. is set to chair the Standing Committee of CITES from Nov. 2-6, which will oversee the implementation of the treaty and review compliance cases, including those linked to India’s wildlife imports. LONDON — British officials explicitly advised government ministers to not engage formally with Vantara, the controversial zoo founded and led by Indian billionaire Anant Ambani, according to documents obtained by Mongabay and The Guardian under the Freedom of Information Act. Ambani is the son of one of India’s richest men, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, a multinational petrochemical and telecommunications conglomerate. Internal British government communications at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) show civil servants strongly cautioning against ministerial interactions with Vantara. A central reason why the officials warned colleagues is the U.K. role chairing a committee at CITES, the global treaty regulating trade in endangered wildlife. “Given the ongoing compliance proceedings and continued scrutiny, we do not advise ministers to engage formally with Vantara at this stage,” an unnamed DEFRA official wrote in an email on July 14. The government redacts names of many civil servants, reflecting a policy of withholding junior officials’ personal information unless they are public-facing or already considered public. In a separate internal briefing document obtained by Mongabay and The Guardian and sent later in July, U.K. officials also raised concerns about how the zoo has sought to acquire rare and endangered species. DEFRA’s headquarters in London. Image by Elisangela Mendonça. The zoo describes itself as a “wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and conservation centre” with more than 150,000 animals. In 2025, the organization drew official scrutiny after reports alleging it acquired endangered species illegally. The facility is not open to the public but has publicized visits by celebrities, including football star Lionel Messi, Meta executive Mark Zuckerberg and Fast & Furious film actor Tyrese Gibson. A CITES report found irregularities in some of its animal imports. Vantara has denied wrongdoing. India’s top court dismissed similar allegations after an investigation last year. Data released by British authorities to Mongabay show the U.K. issued 152 export and re-export permits allowing live animals to be shipped to Vantara. The approvals run from October 2023 to September 2026. Most were issued for CITES Appendix I species, which are endangered animals given the highest international trade protections. The permits covered 18 species, including lar gibbons (Hylobates lar), yellow-cheeked gibbons (Nomascus gabriellae), tigers (Panthera tigris), critically endangered cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus), black-and-white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata) and red-ruffed lemurs (Varecia rubra). The documents are unclear about how many animals have actually been shipped from the U.K. to Vantara. At least 44 of the permits were deemed “unused” and returned to DEFRA, meaning the animals were not exported. Six permits were canceled. Nineteen were “used,” indicating an animal was transferred to Vantara. Of the remaining permits, the vast majority show only that a permit was issued, not whether an animal was shipped. The documents obtained under FOIA show that, internally, U.K. officials raised specific concerns about Vantara’s efforts to ship falcons to India. In recent applications to export falcons and falcon hybrids to Vantara, DEFRA found an alleged “donation” of about £50,000 ($66,500) given to an unnamed falcon exporter. The permit application was for a zoo transfer, which is allowed under CITES for shipping highly protected species between zoos. The donation prompted DEFRA’s Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA), which issues permits for wildlife exported from the U.K. under CITES, to examine whether the transactions would, in reality, be a commercial sale that warrants closer attention. Asked about the permits, Vantara wrote to Mongabay that none of the falcons were transferred. There are no public records that indicate any transfer occurred. Meeting request The advice from the DEFRA staff members to maintain distance from Vantara was sent a day after the London-based public affairs firm Atlas Strategy, representing Vantara, emailed Emma Reynolds, who was then the department’s secretary of state, a high-ranking government post in the cabinet of then-Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Atlas also approached Mary Creagh, the then under-secretary of state for the environment. On Atlas’s website, it characterized its work for Vantara as “reputational management, PR and political communications.” Atlas stated in its email that it was seeking U.K. support for Vantara. “Ahead of the forthcoming CITES meeting in November, Vantara is keen to build a constructive relationship with the United Kingdom and to aim to secure British support for its conservation initiatives,” said the firm’s representative, whose name was redacted, in an email on July 13. The CITES meeting mentioned in the email is the Standing Committee, gathering this week. Attached to the email was a 2026 story from The Times of London, detailing how Ambani has been seeking to relocate hippos that belonged to Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar to the zoo in India. When Reynolds asked for advice from DEFRA’s officials on how to proceed, civil servants told the two ministers to keep their distance: “There are also reputational sensitivities while the process remains live and recommendations on due diligence have not yet been acted on. We expect the profile and controversy surrounding Vantara to increase ahead of a CITES meeting in November,” according to internal DEFRA emails. Documents show DEFRA considered Vantara’s case as a “high-profile test of the CITES compliance and due diligence system,” noting “NGOs may question whether some transactions are consistent with zoological classifications.” As part of its outreach on July 13, to British officials, Atlas requested a ministerial-level meeting with Vantara’s leaders in London and also offered to host government officials at the zoo in Jamnagar in Gujarat, India, to showcase its work. Two weeks after the email exchange, DEFRA officials wrote a formal briefing called “U.K. Approach to engagement with Vantara during ongoing CITES proceedings.” The document was addressed to Jenny Riddel-Carpenter, after she was appointed on July 22, as under-secretary of state for DEFRA, under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, the Labour Party leader who took over this summer as the country’s head of state. A briefing document for U.K. ministers prepared by the country’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, obtained by Mongabay under the Freedom of Information Act. It incudes a recommendation that ministers do not “engage formally” with Vantara. The document concluded, “We do not advise ministers to engage formally with Vantara at this stage.” Together, the emails and the recommendations offer a rare glimpse into how a government involved in regulating international wildlife trade assessed the risks of engaging with the zoo. Why Britain matters In Geneva from Nov. 2-6, the 32 members of the CITES Standing Committee are set to discuss a range of issues related to how the CITES treaty is implemented, including examining a report on India’s compliance with wildlife import rules. The U.K. is the chair of the committee and as chair, it can shape the meeting and guide discussions, experts told Mongabay. Though legal and permitted under its rules, some environmental observers said Vantara’s use of outside lobby firms to sway governments is not typical at CITES. “Conservation NGOs typically engage governments directly — through their own in-house policy staff, technical submissions and evidence. Not through a commercial government-relations firm,” Daniela Freyer, co-founder of the German NGO Pro Wildlife, told Mongabay in September. Atlas, the lobbying firm that contacted DEFRA, registered at the U.K.’s Companies’ House in 2023 under the name AZ19 Limited. It says it operates from an address in Central London, but the office could not be located by a reporter who visited the listed address. Atlas promotes itself on its website as a “boutique firm of reputation management specialists,” providing a tailored offering for domestic and international clients across the corporate, public affairs and litigation support sectors. The firm is led by Alexander Walker, whose lobbying centers on high‑level public affairs and reputation work for governments and corporations, including coordinating international PR campaigns, according to the website. His bio online mentioned he was “supporting the global public affairs of the world’s largest ever wildlife conservation project, in India” and in the company’s description, Vantara was tagged as one of the clients. After Mongabay reached out for comment, references to Vantara were deleted from Atlas’ website. Instead, it replaced the listing and now shows Checkmate Government Relations as a client. Checkmate is a U.S. lobbying firm with a London branch that has done work for Vantara. Atlas declined to comment for this story, and referred all questions to Checkmate. On Atlas’ website, the company says Walker, 32, worked for the Conservative Party’s campaign for the U.K. to remain in the European Union, ahead of the 2016 referendum, where Britons voted to leave the EU. He then moved to Westminster as an adviser to an unspecified senior pro-Leave Conservative member of Parliament and later worked at Conservative campaign headquarters in the 2017 election, supporting former Prime Minister Theresa May, according to Atlas’ website. Since leaving Parliament that year, Walker has run international political and reputation campaigns, according to Atlas’ website. As of Oct. 25, Atlas was not formally registered with the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists, which oversees lobbying activities in the U.K. According to U.K. lobbying rules, it is unlawful for a British firm to work as a paid lobbyist without being registered, according to the country’s Transparency of Lobbying Act. After Mongabay sent a request for comment to Atlas on Oct. 26 for this story, the firm registered with the office. Trump connections Alongside Atlas, Vantara has been represented in Britain by U.S.-based Checkmate. In September, a Mongabay investigation reported that Checkmate worked in the U.K. on behalf of Vantara. Checkmate was founded by Charles ‘Ches’ McDowell, a hunting friend of Donald Trump Jr., and Reliance Industries is a client. Anant Ambani, who started Vantara, is on Reliance’s board of directors. Now, the documents obtained by Mongabay under the Freedom of Information Act detail how Checkmate reached out to members of the U.K. government. Earlier in 2026, a Checkmate representative, whose name was redacted, wrote to Jamie Rendell, DEFRA’s deputy director for international biodiversity and wildlife, and who is part of the CITES Management Authority in the U.K. The Checkmate employee mentioned ties with U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration. “I’ve just returned from DC where we had meetings with the White House, State Department, Department of Interior as well as the British Embassy on the same subject,” the person wrote in an email dated May 11. Checkmate’s representative in the U.K., Tristan Breijer, posted a picture of himself at the White House. Screenshot from his LinkedIn page, June 2026. Checkmate and unnamed Vantara executives secured a meeting on May 26 with members of the CITES management authority at DEFRA’s headquarters in Westminster, according to emails obtained by Mongabay. During those interactions, Checkmate lobbied to persuade the U.K. – in its role as chair of the CITES Standing Committee – to adopt a more sympathetic view of India’s imports, internal communications show. The internal briefing said that Checkmate argued that the “responsibility for verifying legality sits primarily with exporting or re-exporting parties rather than with India as importer.” In a post-meeting readout, DEFRA officials said they clarified to Vantara that authorities in both importing and exporting countries “must apply proportionate scrutiny and risk-based due diligence,” and urged Vantara to strengthen its due diligence to address global concerns. The U.K. also offered to share “learning and experiences on how it approaches due diligence in practice.” In the U.K., Checkmate’s operations are led by Tristan Breijer, a well-connected lobbyist with roots in pro-hunting advocacy in Europe. Breijer works as the senior advisor for Checkmate at its recently opened London office. In his previous lobbying activities, he engaged with the U.K. and European parliaments and U.N. convention processes on “complex and politically sensitive regulatory matters,” according to his company biography. In the past five years, he had represented the European Federation for Hunting and Conservation (FACE), a Brussels-based umbrella group for hunters’ associations across the continent. Checkmate is not registered with the Office of the Registrar of Consultant Lobbyists (ORCL) to lobby in the U.K. according to both the registrar’s website and a spokesperson for ORCL. While Checkmate has been reaching out to British government officials on behalf of Vantara, U.K. lobbying regulations allow such activities under its rules. For instance, if a lobbying firm is based overseas and does not pay a U.K. value added tax, it is exempt from filing. It would also be exempt if it is doing the work pro bono. Vantara said it is not paying Checkmate for representation. When asked about the work being done by Checkmate and Atlas, Vantara told Mongabay and the Guardian, it had not “hired or paid any lobbying firm.” Checkmate publicly lists Reliance Industries as a client. The Ambani family owns the controlling interest in Reliance Industries. There are no public records that Checkmate has been paid for representing Vantara. Checkmate declined to answer questions for this story, including inquiries about its lobbying activities and support to Vantara in the U.K. Falcon permits flagged by officials In April 2026, Vantara submitted 27 applications to import falcons from the U.K., according to documents that Mongabay received as part of its FOIA. The list included: Eight peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus), five gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus), 13 gyrfalcon-saker falcon hybrids (Falco rusticolus × Falco cherrug) and one peregrine-gyrfalcon hybrid (Falco rusticolus × Falco peregrinus). Falcons can be extremely valuable. These birds and their hybrids are coveted in the Middle East where falconry is practiced: It’s an ancient hunting sport that uses a trained bird of prey. Captive-bred birds can sell for thousands of dollars. For example, a saker falcon from Mongolia sold for $373,000 recently at an auction in Saudi Arabia, according to a local news report. A peregrine falcon in flight. Image by David Chamberlin; Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library. Peregrine and gyrfalcons are protected under CITES, and their international commercial trade is banned. But there is an exception: Captive-bred peregrine and gyrfalcons from registered breeding facilities can be sold commercially with permits. Endangered saker falcons can also be sold commercially and their trade is regulated with permits. All the U.K. permit applications were for falcons bred in captivity, according to DEFRA documents. The U.K.’s APHA raised concerns about the exports to Vantara after finding about £50,000 was paid to the exporter as “donation,” according to government documents obtained by Mongabay. It’s not clear who made that donation, but because of its size, APHA determined the exports of the birds would be “commercial” rather than for “zoological” purposes. “That decision has since been challenged by the exporter and generated further correspondence and information requests,” officials wrote in the internal briefing in July. DEFRA declined to provide further details, including about the status of the application. The data obtained under FOIA does not indicate that these permits have ever been used. A Vantara spokesperson said the animals have not been transported out of the U.K. The zoo did not provide further comments. In an August 2026 announcement, Vantara said it would halt animal imports until June 2027. Vantara said that some animals were “purchased abroad by donors and were thereafter donated” to the zoo as part of rescue work. In September, a consortium of 27 leading worldwide NGOs criticized Vantara’s practice of “donations,” saying it “incentivize[s] the removal of further animals from the wild.” They say the move “creates financial incentives for commercial breeders to mislabel their exports to justify such transactions, thereby reinforcing existing illegal wildlife trade and trafficking networks” and urge that Vantara “should not make any payments or donations that risk being construed as commercial trade.” DEFRA did not respond to the several questions made by Mongabay and The Guardian. A spokesperson only said via email, “The U.K. has strict rules in place to protect endangered species and ensure international wildlife trade is legal and sustainable, with every application assessed individually against internationally agreed and domestic requirements.” Banner image: Graphic by Emilie Languedoc/Mongabay with images courtesy of Josh van der Meulen via iNaturalist, David Chamberlin; Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library, Jonathan Casanova; Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library. NGOs call on Vantara to end all wild animal imports permanently Did two of the lemurs stolen in Bangladesh end up in India? Officials are investigating Brazil police seize devices from bird expert in trafficking probe linked to Vantara zoo Vantara in talks with Brazil on ‘strategic cooperation’ on threatened species, FOIA documents reveal Vantara works with lobbyist tied to Trump Jr. and pro-hunting groups Cite this articleElisângela Mendonça, Spoorthy Raman (2026). Do not ‘engage formally’: UK officials advised against billionaire-run zoo ahead of CITES meeting. Mongabay Conservation news. DOI: https://doi.org/10.66709/news-334634 Credits Topics