Outcry in West over plan to build road through Serengeti

The Tanzanian government’s plan to build a road linking Arusha and Musoma is being opposed by wildlife advocates in the United States and other developed countries who warn that the route will disrupt the wildebeest migration and thus badly damage Tanzania’s tourism-dependent economy.

A Facebook page posted under the heading “Stop the Serengeti Highway” has generated thousands of petition signatures in two weeks.

The campaign against the road has been further propelled by a New York Times blogger, Olivia Judson, who laments that the proposed road will smudge Tanzania’s “outstanding record of conservation.”

Expressing befuddlement as to why this route has been chosen, the Times blogger notes that President Jakaya Kikwete “is known for his interest in nature.”

Just last month, the president personally greeted six black rhinos flown into the Serengeti from South Africa as part of an effort to regenerate the species in Tanzania, Ms Judson notes.

The $480-million highway is planned to link Arusha and the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya through the Serengeti National Park, a statement by Isidori Shirima, Arusha Regional Commissioner said.

There has been a three-year protest by green activists, including the Tanzania National Parks Authority, against interference with the wildebeest migration route.

According to Mr Shirima, the government deemed the proposed 480km Arusha-Musoma tarmac road to be of great socioeconomic significance for Tanapa.

Of the project’s total cost, $260 million will cover the Arusha-Serengeti section and $220 million the Serengeti-Musoma segment.

Deusdedit Kakoko, the regional manager for Tanzania Roads Agency, said work will begin early 2012 while feasibility studies are to be completed by the end of this year.

Some activists alarmed by the road’s potential impact note that it enjoys the support of local communities through which it would pass.

And a few Times readers commenting on Ms Judson’s blog posting argue that the road is essential to Tanzania’s development and should not be opposed by well-off outsiders.

Traders and travellers from the heavily populated area to be served by the proposed road must currently loop more than 418Km to the south to skirt the protected Serengeti, an environmentalist website acknowledges.

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,” Mr Shelutete said.

“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.”