The world’s greatest migration spectacle — the annual charge of nearly 2 million wildebeest, zebra and other mammals across east Africa — is under threat from plans to build a road across their route.
Twenty-seven conservation experts from around the world have put their names to a two-page article in the journal Nature condemning the plan, adding to growing international concern including thousands of signatures on petitions opposing the Tanzanian government project.
Barring the herds from their traditional dry-season feeding grounds to the north would, the scientists argue, lead to population crashes in the prey species — and the predators that depend on them. The scheme could also lead to the “collapse” of the entire Serengeti ecosystem, from the vegetation which acts as a massive store of carbon dioxide to the world-famous sight of wild dogs, rhinoceros, lions and cheetah.
“The proposed road could lead to the collapse of the largest remaining migratory system on Earth — a system that drives Tanzania’s tourism trade and supports thousands of people,” conclude the authors. “Such a collapse would be exceedingly regrettable for a country that has consistently been a world leader in conservation.” The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has also issued a statement saying it has “utmost concern” about the proposed road, and warning “it could result in irreversible damage to the property’s ‘outstanding universal value.’” In a move which has prompted speculation that UNESCO could strip the Serengeti of its status as a world heritage site if the road is built, the body has also asked for a report on “the state of conservation” to consider at its 2011 annual meeting.
About 1.5m hectares of savannah grasslands and plains, riverine forest and woodlands make up the Serengeti national park, stretching across northern Tanzania from Lake Victoria half way to the east coast of Africa, and from the Ngorongoro game park to Kenya’s famous Masaai Mara safari attraction in the north.
Each year over 1.5 million wildebeest and zebra, accompanied by gazelle and packs of predators, flee north at the end of the wet season, between April and June, to the only permanent river in the region, the Mara, and the wetter feeding grounds. Across this vast area they drive a rare ecosystem by eating huge quantities of plant life, recycling nutrients through truckloads of dung and urine, and trampling seeds across the landscape.
The planned 53km road linking Lake Victoria to highways to the east coast ports and capital, Dar es Salaam, was announced during the 2005 national election of President Jakaya Kikwete, and is scheduled to begin construction in 2012.
The letter in the latest edition of Nature was prompted by growing concern as political pressure for the project has mounted in the run up to next month’s (OCT) next national election, said Prof Andrew Dobson of Princetown University in the US, the lead author of the opinion article.
The authors argue that once built, the gravel road will attract faster and heavier lorry traffic, including at night, leading to a growing number of collisions with wild animals; this in turn will lead to pressure for a tarmac road surface and a fence along the route, physically barring the great migration route.
Similar experiences in other national parks, including Banff in Canada, Mikumi in Tanzania, and the great Kgalagadi Transfrontier national park the other side of Africa, and the similar destruction of six of the world’s last 24 terrestrial migratory species, including caribou in northern Canada and pronghorns in the western U.S., make this a real threat, said Dobson. In addition, control over the road and 50m either side would be turned over from the national park authority to the roads department, he said.
Instead, opponents — including conservationists working in Tanzania and the tourist industry in Kenya which fears it will also suffer a great loss of wild animals — want the government to consider an alternative route to the south of the park. Although the lorries would have to travel further, there would be a similar length of road to construct to link existing highways; the income from 90,000 annual tourists to these and other connected game parks would be protected; and five to eight times as many people would benefit from links to trade in a more populated region of the country, they say.
“We’re not against road being built, but there’s a much better alternative that serves more people, that has a win-win-win of maintaining one of the biggest wildlife sights in the world and one of the biggest carbon sinks,” added Dobson.
Other conservation groups who oppose the plan include the RSPB in the U.K., the U.S. based Wildlife Conservation Society, and the Zoological Society of London.
Copyright: Guardian News & Media 2010
