Serengeti Road Cancelled

Further to earlier reporting, the Government of Tanzania has halted plans to build the road from Dar-es Salaam to Musoma through Serengeti National Park. In a statement, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism said, "The State Party confirms that the proposed road will not dissect the Serengeti National Park and therefore will not affect the migration and conservation values of the Property."

The road had been projected to accomodate over 800 vehicles passing through the park per day by 2015 with an expected rise of up to 3,000 vehicles by 2035. In the end, Tanzania yielded to pressure from a number of western governments — including Germany and the US — that voiced concerns about the road. The World Bank had also offered to support Tanzania in building an alternative road. 

The African Indaba e-Newsletter Volume 9, Number 4 then reported further on:

1) A letter dated 22 June to the Directors of the World Heritage Center from the Tanzanian Minister of Natural Resources and Tourism, HE Ezekiel Maige stating:
The eastern stretch of 214 km from Mto wa Mbu to Loliondo; the western stretch of 117km from Makutano-Natta-Mugumu. The stretch of 12km from Mugumu to Serengeti NP western border will not be tarmac. The 53 km section traversing Serengeti NP will remain gravel road and continue to be managed by TANAPA mainly for tourism and administrative purposes as it is currently." The letter continues that "this decision has been reached in order to address the increasing socio-economic needs of the rural communities in Northern Tanzania while safeguarding the Outstanding Universal Value (OUV) of Serengeti NP. The Government of United Republic of Tanzania is also seriously considering the construction of a road from Mugumu to Arusha running south of Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Serengeti National Park.

2) The International Herald Tribune's Editorial on 27 June with the opinion that:
Unfortunately, the letter announcing the change in plans is too ambiguous to celebrate, and it leaves the ultimate fate of Serengeti unresolved. Tanzania now proposes to build roads right up to the edge of Serengeti. The letter … announces that the controversial route across the park "will remain gravel road" …. But such a gravel road does not now exist, since much of this section of the park is maintained as wilderness. By conceding its hopes for an asphalt road across Serengeti, Tanzania gets a gravel road by sleight of hand. In fact, it was a plan for a gravel road across the park that caused worldwide protest last year. Serengeti lies directly on a route from Uganda to a Tanzanian port called Tanga, on the Indian Ocean. The pressure to develop this route is intense, thanks largely to mining and other extractive industries in Uganda. Tanzania has a right, of course, to pursue its economic future. A major part of its economic present is revenue from tourism, mostly related to Serengeti. It is time for the Tanzanian government to do the right thing, economically and environmentally, and declare its unequivocal commitment to protect Serengeti’s integrity.

Serengeti Road: Kenyan Engagement

As reported in Kenya's Daily Nation on 16 June, President Kibaki has been asked to engage his Tanzanian counterpart Jakaya Kikwete to stop plans to build a planned road from Dar-es Salaam to Musoma through Serengeti National Park.Tourism stakeholders say the road would affect the annual migration of wildebeests from Serengeti to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve and fuel poaching. The US government is reportedly lobbying for Tanzanian authorities to drop the plan for the sake of tourism.

Legal action has been filed in the East African Court of Justice seeking to permanently restrain the government of Tanzania from the following:

• “constructing, creating, commissioning or maintaining a trunk road or highway across any part of the Serengeti National Park.”
• “degazetting (removing) any part of the Serengeti National Park for the purpose of upgrading, tarmacking, paving, realigning, constructing, creating or commissioning” the highway.
• removing itself from UNESCO obligations with respect to the Serengeti National Park.

See the news article:  Activists file suit against Serengeti Highway move

"Serengeti Watch" is one organization that continues to track developments on this issue.