Lionness with kill in Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler.
The Serengeti ecosystem got a major reprieve last week when the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) ruled against a hugely-controversial plan to build a paved road through Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park. The court dubbed the proposed road “unlawful” due to expected environmental impacts. The case was brought to the regional court by the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) in 2010, but has taken four years to receive a definitive ruling.
“[We] fully [respect] Tanzania’s sovereignty and its need for national development,” Josphat Ngonyo, ANAW’s Executive Director said in a statement. “However, by taking up this matter, ANAW was in actual fact protecting a resource that would be of future benefit not only to Tanzanians or East Africans but also the entire humanity.”
The road, which would have bisected the northern—and most remote—portion of Serengeti National Park has had many ups and down. After opposition by the UN, German and U.S. governments, and the Tanzanian tourist lobby, it was widely reported that the Tanzanian government had cancelled the commercial road in 2010. A few days later, though, it became clear that the government hadn’t cancelled the road at all, but only tweaked their plans, changing the road from paved to unpaved while it ran through the park for 53 kilometers.
Yet critics contended if the road was built at all, it would eventually become paved, bringing an influx of traffic across the ecosystem and potentially severing Serengeti’s great migration. In fact a leaked government report estimated that over million vehicles would be using the road annually by 2036.
The new ruling, however, removes the threat of a paved road for the time being.
Despite being seen as a rebuke to the Tanzanian government—and a death-knell for one of President Jakaya Kikwete’s promises—the government was dismissive of the ruling.
“The government had long decided not to build the road across the Serengeti,” said Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Lazaro Nyalandu in response to the court’s decision, as reported by the East African.
Earlier this month, the Tanzanian government announced its intention to go ahead with a German-funded study for a different route for the commercial highway. This one would swing south, circumventing the park altogether. The route has been one option raised by conservationists and foreign governments alike.
However, the cancellation of the road could impact negatively remote northern communities that are looking for easier access to more populated areas. A few years ago the German government offered to build better access roads for these communities, which wouldn’t cut through the full park.
Two million wildebeest, zebra, and antelope migrate annually across the Serengeti Plains. Research in 2011 found that a highway through the park could have cut the wildebeest population by 35 percent not including additional impacts such as wildlife-collisions, rise in poaching, and other developments. The leaked government report also predicted a lesser-migration, which would further imperil the region’s already endangered big predators due to prey decline.
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