Serengeti highway could spell economic disaster for Tanzania

The planned road completely bisects the path of the world famous annual wildebeest and zebra migration comprised of nearly 2 million animals

September 2010. A team of well-respected scientists has released a joint statement detailing their opposition to the building of a new road that would bisect the Serengeti National Park. Apprehensive about the damage a road would inflict on the ecosystem, the group of scientists clearly warns the Tanzanian government about the ecological and economic consequences this road would have. The Opinion piece will appear in this week's issue of Nature.

Plans for building a two-lane commercial road through 50 kilometres of the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania must be halted. In an Opinion piece in Nature this week, Andrew Dobson, a professor at Princeton University, and 26 scientist and conservation luminaries detail the damage such a road could wreak. The authors warn that the road will cause an environmental disaster, primarily by curtailing the migration of 1.3 million wildebeest. The resultant drop in herbivore numbers - from millions to hundreds of thousands, they estimate - could precipitate ecosystem collapse and wild fires, dent tourism income and perhaps even cause the system to "flip from being a carbon sink into a major source of atmospheric carbon dioxide".

Potential economic disaster
Furthermore the authors bring attention to the potential "economic disaster" that would also be caused by the building of the road. Tanzania and Kenya, both reliant on tourism from the Serengeti National Park and Masai Mara Reserve respectively, would lose visitors and dent global optimism raised for Africa's future.

Wildebeest range in the wet season(1) and in the dry season(2); proposed commercial road(3)

Alternative route
Citing modelling data and experiences in other disrupted ecosystems, the group says "there is an alternative to driving the road through the World Heritage Sites of the Serengeti National Park, where humans took their first recorded steps". A road to the south of the park "would minimize environmental and economic damage and maximize benefits to human development and infrastructure".

The authors support the alternative road proposal that goes around the south of the Serengeti without ever entering park boundaries. They observe that the alternative route is not without environmental consequences, but it is considerably more viable on a range of economic fronts. "It would provide valuable access to agricultural markets for around 2.3 million people as opposed to 431,000 on the northern route."

Tourism is 23% of Tanzania's foreign revenue
Their concern not only gives light to the rural populations currently lacking critically needed infrastructure, but heeds note of Tanzania's economic dependency on the tourism sector accounting for 23% of the total foreign revenue.

Scientists
The team of authors is led by Dr. Andrew P. Dobson, a professor at Princeton University in the United States. Dobson is a disease ecologist whose interest lies in tackling issues in conservation biology, land-use change and human development. He has worked extensively in the Serengeti for many years. Dobson was joined by several other leaders in conservation including Dr. Markus Borner, head of Frankfurt Zoological Society's Africa Regional Office and Dr. Tony Sinclair, probably the most educated scientist in the world in regards to the Serengeti Ecosystem.

The entire team lives and breathes conservation throughout their daily lives and are harnessing their energy to help prevent one of the last pristine ecosystems from collapsing.

Map of north-eastern Tanzania illustrating proposed road across Serengeti and alternative southern routes: The southern route (green) would serve nearly five times as many people, than the proposed Serengeti route (red). In essence, each kilometre of the northern route services 1024 people (mainly Masai pastoralists whose livestock will be frequent victims of increased road traffic), while each kilometre of the southern route provides services for 5950 people many of whom are farming families that require access to the markets of central and coastal Tanzania.