Bypass Serengeti National Park - appeal

 Mhe. Allan Kijazi akipokea mfano wa Tembo katika maadhimisho ya TOKOMEZA UJANGILI WA TEMBO ,OKOA UTALII WETU Uliofanyika kwa matembezi na kuhitimishwa katika viwanja vya Sheikh Amri Abeid , Jijini Arusha Leo.

 

Rather than across the Serengeti National Park, the government has been called on to consider building the proposed commercial-tarmac road through the Southern Route popularly known as Lake Eyasi route.

In its six-page statement, a network of organisations dealing with environmental issues Mazingira Network Tanzania (MANET) also suggested another alternative, an underground 53 kilometres tunnel below the Serengeti National Park.

 

MANET says foregoing the original plan, will ensure a sustainable economy, management of wildlife and other natural resources and collective benefits for current and future generations, as well as meet the demands of global conservation concerns and efforts.

 

MANET Secretary Frank Luvanda  said  his network understands the need for the government to promote infrastructure development in order to bring desirable services to the communities bordering the Serengeti National Park

“…but this should be done while taking into account sustainable management of wildlife and other natural resources in Tanzania,” he said.

 

“MANET understands and supports the right of every district in Tanzania to be connected to the Tanzania road network,” he noted.

 

“For MANET, this means that Serengeti and Ngorongoro Districts have the right to have good tarmac roads but again, any attempt to connect these two districts should consider sustainable management of wildlife and other natural resources that will ensure sustainable development in these two districts and the nation as a whole,” he said in the statement read.

 

MANET suggests the government considers connecting Mugumu town (Serengeti District) to Tabora B with a normal tarmac road, and then from Tabora B to Kleins Gate (Ngorongoro District) through an underground tunnel in order to ensure that there is sustainable management and conservation of the Serengeti ecosystem and wildebeest migration.

 

MANET also suggests connection of the Mugumu (Serengeti District) with regional and national road network to the west linking it with Musoma, Mwanza, and Shinyanga.

 

It further suggested connection of the Lake Zone regions with Arusha and Manyara regions through the Southern route which according to MANET, has higher economic gains than the Northern route that goes across the Serengeti National Park. 

 

“MANET requests the government to respect its technical experts’ opinions rather than only listening to self-serving politicians before embarking on any huge investment scheme that ultimately may bring more damage that prosperity to the country,” the MANET statement cautions.

 

MANET said the government should make development decisions in favour of the alternative Southern route highway which is proposed by the World Bank with an offer of funding, and by other donors and by the worldwide conservation community.

 

“The Southern route will connect many more communities, highly productive areas and markets, and thus have significantly higher economic returns than the proposed Serengeti Northern highway that goes across Serengeti National Park. The Southern route will bring more social-economic benefits hence reduce poverty and improve people’s livelihood in the areas,” reads the statement.

 

The communiqué bids the government to adhere to the global fraternity’s  against the death of the Serengeti ecosystem. “This is because the exceptional value of the Serengeti ecosystem lies in its wilderness and isolation from human-development impacts as these would destroy the park's serenity and uniqueness.”

 

“MANET offers this position statement given scientific consensus which confirms that, within few decades, such a proposed commercial tarmac highway within Serengeti National Park would destroy the migration legacy of the Serengeti National Park that has been there undisturbed for almost 5 million years. That would not be an enviable legacy,” it said.

 

The network said the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment (ESIA) for the proposed Serengeti highway, which was commissioned by the government of Tanzania states clearly that even an unpaved road across Serengeti National Park will attract huge traffic that will trigger massive damage of the park's sensitive ecology.

 

In addition, the ESIA states categorically that construction of the highway will decimate and curtail significantly numerous wildlife populations and critical habitats, particularly the world famous wildebeest migration, and also have unforeseen negative effects on the ecological integrity of the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.

 

MANET is among millions of people in Tanzania and worldwide, in their petition against the construction of the proposed highway across Northern

“MANET supports and fights for the protection of the unique ecological integrity of the Serengeti National Park (SENAPA) and its enormous present and potential socio-economic value. MANET is certain that Serengeti National Park is significant for Tanzania’s sustainable development and macroeconomic stability,” it said.

 

Furthermore, MANET request and call on the government of Tanzania to sign the Trans-boundary Ecosystem Bill that will ensure collective East African conservation agenda.