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| US Person: Rongai Crossing |
The Serengeti was spared by a East African court last week when it ruled against a controversial plan to build a paved road across Tanzania's Serengeti National Park. The African Network for Animal Welfare brought the suit four years ago. The organization's executive director said in a statement that the organization respects Tanzania's sovereignty and need for economic development, but the protection of the Serengeti plain preserves a natural resource that will benefit Tanzanians and as well as East Africa and the rest of humanity. The road would have bisected the remote northern portion of the Park, cutting off the famous migration routes thousands of visitors come to witness every year. The plan was met with fierce international opposition which Tanzanian politicians framed as interference with sovereignty. In 2010 the government said the project was withdrawn, but in reality it only tweaked the proposal by making the Park portion of the road unpaved. Whether paved or unpaved, the road would have attracted vehicle traffic that frightens wildlife and causes deadly collisions especially at night. The government's own estimates were for over a million vehicles using the road annually by 2036. The Tanzanian government also claimed that the East African Community Treaty did not give the court jurisdiction over the issue, but an appellate ruling in 2011 dismissed that claim.
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| US Person: mating in the tall grass |
The road was intended for local people to have access to an all-weather highway and encourage development, but an ecological expert testified that it would adversely affect the movement of millions of animals, particularly wildebeest and zebra during their annual migration. Research in 2011 found that a road would reduce the wildebeest population by 35%, further endangering lions and other large predators. A Tanzanian government official shrugged off the ruling saying its focus had already shifted to south of the Park for the planned route. Earlier the government announced that it will go ahead with a German offer to fund a study for the southern route that would circumvent the Park entirely. Conservationists suggested that the southern route could be an acceptable alternative. Germany also offered to build better access roads for remote northern villages that do not cut across the entire Park.
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| US Person: Ngorogoro, Tanzania |
