An unusual dispute, concerning an environmental matter in the Tennen system of the Caldari Border Zone, will shortly be brought before the Caldari Business Tribunal (CBT). The legal case concerns the Tennen VI Southern Island Continent Wildlife Preserve (SICP), a Caldari State Park, which, despite that coveted status, is a corporate entity owned by a variety of shareholders. The Park Board, which recently came under the control of majority shareholder Nugoeihuvi Corporation (NOH), has for the past six months been running extremely successful hunting tours for visitors paying a special hunting levy. Other shareholders, amongst which are a number of Caldari and Gallente citizens, objected to this scheme from the beginning but have only lately brought the matter to the CBT, with a case aiming to reverse recent changes to the SICP Charter.
Tennen VI SICP has been in existence for some 50 years and is one of the most famous Caldari State Parks due to the presence of the Herodontic, a genus of ferocious but highly intelligent homomorphs. The Herodontic are present in a variety of species across Tennen VI but in relatively sparse numbers. The Tennen VI SICP was in large part founded to protect and stabilise the largest concentration of the Herodontic Sapiens species, the largest, most intelligent of the various Herodontic variants. Approximately 10,000 Herodontic Sapiens, together with up to 15,000 members of several other Herodontic species make their home in a park that ranges across three million square kilometres.
Due to the unusual wildlife, not to mention a stunning variety of landscapes, the Tennen VI SICP has attracted much tourist interest, alongside many scientific missions. Until recently, the terms of the SICP Corporate Charter meant that such tourists had relatively limited access and could on no account harm any of the wildlife within the preserve. This changed when NOH gained majority control and imposed a new board. The first act of this board was to alter the Charter and begin to offer hunting trips in the Caldari corporate entertainment and Amarr Holder markets. Uptake among Amarrian Holders, many of whom enjoy hunting, has been particularly high.
Many Caldari biologists are known to be appalled by this development, though most cannot speak out due to clauses in their contracts. One of the few who has spoken out, Dr. Riekko Hanusman, a paleogeneticist with Zainou Biotech, expressed himself forcefully, "The changes to the Charter of the State Park are appalling and have been done solely in the interests of shortsighted, entertainment-based profiteering with no eye to the long-term. Other parties have indicated to me that the threat to biodiversity on Tennen VI is serious and cannot be considered to be in the overall corporate interests of the SICP." Zainou Biotech are a minority-shareholder of the Tennen VI SICP corporation and Dr. Hanusman's freedom to speak his mind is a significant indication to seasoned Caldari-watchers.
Were the case before the CBT not already unusual enough, a late development has transformed it into a cause célèbre of cluster-wide scope. Gallente citizens have been particularly vocal in their condemnation of the changes at the SICP but with no standing in the Caldari corporate state have been largely impotent until now. Realising that the immensely-influential Quafe corporation has full corporate status within the Caldari State, uniquely for a Gallente corporation, the Gallente campaigners have put enormous pressure on the soft-drinks combine to involve itself in the case. While no comment has been made by Quafe itself, it has been noted that a Quafe legal team has recently arrived at the CBT headquarters in Maurasi system.
Observers speculate that both Quafe and Zainou Biotech intend to declare themselves as corporate parties to the case when it is formally opened. To date the Tennen VI SICP board and NOH itself has refused to comment on the case except to insist that it is a "private and commercially sensitive matter that will be settled according to established Caldari business law". This unusual case has the potential to set a number of precedents and will no doubt take some time to wend its way through the Tribunal system. In the meantime, NOH continues to offer hunting trips to all who can afford them.