At last year’s World Heritage Convention (WHC) meeting the Tanzanian government’s plans for a highway across the world famous Serengeti National Park came under intense scrutiny. Here's some background on the issue.
The Park is on the route of the world’s greatest mammal migration – of 1.8 million wildebeest and other antelopes. The road could cause this migration to collapse, taking with it the economic revenues from tourists visiting the Park – a major foreign exchange earner for Tanzania.
Zebra crossing - road threat to one of the world's most dramatic migrations
Under pressure, Tanzania issued a written statement that the 53 km stretch of the road through the Park would not be paved and would continue to be controlled by the National Park Authority and used by the same level of traffic as currently ie mostly tourists, not commercial traffic. They also said they would seriously consider the southern alternative road (which avoids the Park).
We were cautiously optimistic and welcomed the statement. But since then there has been little to celebrate and alarm bells are now ringing again.
The Tanzanian authorities have been taking forward the plans for the eastern stretch of the Serengeti road (outside and to the east of the Park). There have been no clear public statements about the western stretch of the road (which includes the section through the Park). No revised Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) has been published or submitted to the WHC.
Nor has there been any public statement about an alternative southern route, despite offers of funding to study this from the World Bank and German and US Governments.
Instead, we understand that some commercial traffic is already passing through the Serengeti National Park. And although some of the Tanzanian Government communications state that the road through the Park will not be upgraded and will remain a gravel road, at present it is not a gravel road but a seasonal dirt track, so any change, including gravelling, will in fact amount to upgrading.
This is all extremely concerning. We fear this piece-meal development of the eastern stretch of the road in advance of any studies on an alternative southern route will further increase future pressure for the section of the road through the Serengeti to be upgraded.
As you’ll know from previous posts on this blog, we are not anti development and fully recognize the need for Tanzania to upgrade its transport infrastructure. But we do believe that transport solutions must be sustainable and that environmental issues should be properly taken into account in route decisions as is required by both Tanzanian and international law. We strongly believe a solution is possible through strategic planning.
This year’s World Heritage Convention meeting is in St Petersburg, Russia and starts on Sunday. In these worrying times we are asking the WHC to adopt a decision which:
It's important that the WHC take a strong stance and ensure the iconic Serengeti National Park ‘will not die’.
We will let you know the outcome.
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