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Conservation victory: Serengeti highway plans cancelled
Plans to build a paved, two-lane highway through the Serengeti National Park have been canceled.
The road, which was supposed to bring better access to Lake Victoria, will possibly be rerouted further south to avoid having an impact on the Serengeti's rich wildlife.
There's already a gravel road across the park, but paving it would have attracted much more traffic and probably fencing. The U.S. government expressed concern, as did UNESCO, after a study showed the project would affect the annual migration of millions of animals that's one of the wonders of the natural world.
This is a rare victory of common sense over unbridled "development." It's also an example of how being eco-friendly can be good for the economy. Tourism generates a major part of Tanzania's income, and there's no way a road cutting through the nation's most valuable natural resource wouldn't have had a negative impact.
[Photo courtesy D. Gordon E. Robertson]
Filed under: Activism, Africa, Tanzania, Ecotourism, News
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jack Huang Jun 26th 2011 3:07PM
It's not a conservation victory, actually, though the Tanzanian gov't has very cleverly packaged it as such.
From Serengeti Watch:
"The government curiously says that the current road across the same 53 km stretch across wilderness zone will 'remain' gravel, though no such road exists. They do not exclude commercial use, stating that it will be 'mainly for tourism and administrative purposes as it is currently.' And clearly, it will be the only connection between upgraded roads being planned on either side of the Serengeti. Whatever is now there, which is not much, will have to be upgraded to make this connection happen."