WildlifeDirect adds it’s voice to the growing condemnation of a decision by the Tanzanian Government to build a highway across the Serengeti. The road is necessary to link Arusha, with Musoma, but it will cutt directly through a narrow section of the northern Serengeti.
Route map taken from AWF website
The road will have untold environmental impacts and could sever a critical corridor for the annual migration of hundreds of thousands of wildebeests, zebra and other animals. Just to remind you, the Mara-Serengeti migration is one of the worlds greatest spectacles. The road will affect wildlife in Kenya and Tanzania. Pascal Shelutete, spokesman for the Tanzanian National Parks Authority, was quoted in a recent UK Daily Telegraph story in defence of the project. “This new road will bring a great benefit to the economy of this cut-off part of the country, and ease the movement of people and goods,”
Conservationists including AWF and tour companies in USA are petitioning the Tanzanian government to halt these plans. The Facebook petition to stop the Serengetti Highway has attracted attention to the Tanzanian government who defend the project.According to an article in the weekly newspaper The East African
The Tanzanians claim that “No big project of this scale would be contemplated without a thorough feasibility study, and it has shown that there will be no impact on the migration.” However, such a road will directly affect the migration in Tanzania and Kenya as the animals move north. WildlifeDirect, AWF and other conservationists in the area believe that this project will be the death knell of the Serengeti. Not only will the migration be affected, but greater traffic will lead to an escalation in poaching and it is also likely that diseases will also be introduced through the high volume of public traffic and trade in livestock through the area.
AWF have proposed an alternative route – the construction of a tar road linking Wasso in Loliondo Division, Ngorongoro District, with Mto was Mbu. To learn more about this alternative visit the AWF site here
To add your voice visit the facebook appeal and leave a comment here.
9 Comments
No Serengeti highway on animal immigration land!!!!!!!!!!!!!
In the future You will be boycotted for doing this.
People go to Africa for the ANIMALS.
Not the CARS
I want to apologise being blunt, but these news are yet another reason why I won’t travel to Tanzania. I really would love to see the vast open space and savannah over there, but won’t go there until the government shows some effort to put a stop to elephant poaching, Lake Natron “development” plans and now this..
Surely the Serengeti National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site? What on earth is the government of Tanzania thinking of?
Petition now signed. The whole business really does beggar belief.
it is a national park and treasure! the government or those who run it are idiots who are interested only in short term gains or self interests. wonder why the quotas of hunting or killing lions,leopards and others only increase even though their numbers are decreasing! they are not for wildlife conservation at all. only have eyes for some rich white folks to kill lions and other big five for fun!
Stop destroying our national heritages. We are unique in the world so why destroy? Tanzania I thought you had more sense than that! Luciana
I cannot get over the selfish, greedy IDIOTS in the Tanzanian government, wanting to stuff their pockets with more cash before their terms in office expire. But at what expense? If they cared just a tiny bit about their countries best interests they would dissolve this outrageous propossal. The entire migration will collapse – not only Wildebeest but populations of the thousands of species that follow it will be dessimated. I’m so angry I could scream!
As I see it there is absolutely no justification whatsoever for building a road at ground level (or at all, in my opinion) through a game reserve, especially one of such massive significance. If it is to save MONEY, and make more, then I despise the Tanzanians for allowing this to happen and I hope they will hang their heads in shame for having ever considered it when the world responds with vengence, as I hope they will. SEND THE ROAD SOUTH
I beg you. Do not destroy what God created for the sake of commerce. There is another way. Do not build a road and compromise the health and well-being of the wildlife. You will be sorry.
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