Government plans to build a road through Serengeti National Park came up against more opposition this week as the Tanzanian Association of Tour Operators (Tato) came out against the project, reports The Citizen. Tato, described as powerful local lobby group by the Tanzanian media, stated that the road would hurt tourism and urged the government to select a proposed alternative route that would by-pass the park. Tato’s opposition may signal a shift to more local criticism of the road as opposition against the project has come mostly from international environmentalists, scientists, and governments.
“The proposed road would pass through the ecologically fragile section of the park which is also a migratory route for animals,” Tato executive secretary Mustapha Akunaay told The Citizen. “Eventually this will lead to dropping number of tourists visiting the area, a situation that will certainly impact on the economy.”
Akunaay also criticized the government for only ordering an environmental impact assessment (EIA) after they had approved the road
Scientists say the road project will significantly harm the world’s largest migration. A recent study found that the wildebeest herd, which currently numbers over a millions, could be cut down by a third. A loss in the herd would ripple through the ecosystem affecting populations of many of the plains’ species, including big predators.
A leaked government study estimated that by 2015, 800 vehicles per day would cross the proposed 30 mile (50 kilometer) stretch of the park. By 2035, the number of vehicles per day is expected to rise to 3,000, or well over a million a year.
The World Bank has offered to help fund the alternative route, but so far the Tanzanian government, under President Jakaya Kikwete, has rebuffed the funding, insisting the road will pass through the Serengeti as initially planned.
The NGO Serengeti Watch is planning the first ever International Serengeti Day on March 19th with hopes that it can bring added attention (and pressure) to the issue.
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First International Serengeti Day hopes to halt road project
(02/23/2011) On March 19th the conservation organization, Serengeti Watch, is planning the world’s first International Serengeti Day to celebrate one of the world’s most treasured wildlife ecosystems. But the day also has another goal: bring attention to a Tanzanian government plan to build a road that would essentially cut the ecosystem, threatening the world’s largest mammal migration. “The proposed road will be a major commercial route that cuts across a narrow stretch of the Park near the border with Kenya. It goes through a wilderness zone critical to the annual migration of 1.3 million wildebeest and 0.7 million zebras, antelope, and other wildlife. This will involve extracting a strip of land from the Park itself, resulting in both the fragmentation of the ecosystem and the removal of the Serengeti National Park from the list of UN World Heritage Sites,” said David Blanton, co-founder of Serengeti Watch, in an interview with mongabay.com.
Leaked government study: road will damage Serengeti wildlife, despite president’s assurances
(02/10/2011) Tanzania’s President, Jakaya Kikwete, today gave promises that his proposed road project, which will bisect the Serengeti plains, would not hurt one of the world’s most famed parks and one of its last great land migrations. “The Serengeti is a jewel of our nation as well as for the international community. […] We will do nothing to hurt the Serengeti and we would like the international community to know this,” Kikwete said in a statement reported by the AFP. However, a government environment impact study, leaked to the conservation organization Serengeti Watch, paints a very different picture of how the road will damage the Serengeti. The report includes warnings that the road will ‘limit’ the migration of the plains’ 1.5 million wildebeest and 500,000 other herbivores including zebra.
Scientists: road through Serengeti would likely end wildebeest migration
(02/02/2011) A new study finds that a proposed road cutting through Serengeti National Park would likely have devastating consequences for one of the world’s last great migrations. According to the study the road itself could lead to a 35% loss in the famed park’s migrating wildebeest herd, essentially cutting the herd down by over half a million animals. Despite such concerns, and the availability of an alternative route that would bypass the Serengeti plains altogether, the Tanzanian government has stated it is going ahead with the controversial road.