Controversial road construction project in Tanzania definitively rejected

[Kateregga Dennis]

A highway through the Serengeti National Park was supposed to connect isolated areas at Lake Victoria with the region around the Kilimanjaro. In the opinion of the Tanzanian government, this was planned, in order to achieve a better development of the regions and to tap new the markets. After a long lasting protest of national and international conservationists in combination with the menace of the UNESCO to deprive the world natural heritage state, awarded in 1981, the Tanzanian government finally give in at the end of June 2011. The Serengeti National Park and its important animal migration routes will not be separated by a two-lane highway. The highway is now planned to run in the south of the park and will be integrated in already existing road sections.

 

Background:

In the areas of the Serengeti National Park as well as of the bordering National Park Massai Mara in Kenya, between 1.3 and 1.5 million animals annually trek hundreds of kilometres to waterholes and subsequently back to their initial pastures. This is the largest, still intact long distance migration route of wild animals in Africa. The planned road would have intersected the migration routes of the animals. The risk of collisions between animals and traffic be would have been unavoidable and fences along the road would have cut the ways of the animals. The whole construction project should would have been a great risk for the sensitive ecosystem.