Amid the extinction of animals in the famous Serengeti National Park, conservationists and environmentalists are deeply worried that the newly proposed 480km tarmac road could totally ruin the ecosystem of the global biggest heritage.
The spirited campaign by the government to defend the envisaged Musoma-Loliondo tarmac road as vital to country’s economy has been weakened further, in the wake of publication of the project’s negative impacts on the ecological and ecosystem status of the Serengeti National Park in an internationally respected journal.
That development has simultaneously aggravated the worries and bitterness of wildlife conservationists and environmental experts within and beyond the country.
According to research findings published by the Journal of Zoology recently, there was a drastic decline in number and total disappearance of particular species of animals in Kenya’s Massai Mara Game Reserve.
Maasai Mara Game Reserve neighbours Serengeti National Park in the south-western part and is always a home for migrating wildebeests and zebras around August annually.
The findings come amid a warning by the United States to Tanzania's government about the impact of its plan to build a road through the Serengeti that environmentalists say could affect the famed wildebeest migration and threaten endangered species.
The top US diplomat for Africa, Johnnie Carson, said on Wednesday that he raised the matter in meetings with top Tanzanian officials in late April and that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters that Tanzanian officials are "clearly aware" of concerns about the road and are trying to address them.
The research conducted by Dr Joseph Ogutu, a senior statistician in the Bioinformatics unit of the University of Hohenheim, Germany and part of the findings reported by BBC’s nature section, gathers that numbers of impala, warthog, giraffe, topi and Coke’s hartebeest have declined by over 70 per cent.
It further shows that even fewer survive beyond the reserve in the wider Mara, where buffalo and wild dogs have all but disappeared, while huge numbers of wildebeest no longer pass through the region on their epic migration.
However, the research says numbers of cattle grazing in the reserve have increased by more than 1100 per cent, although it is illegal for them to so do, one of the major attributes for wildlife disappearance.
There appear to be three main causes of these dramatic declines: the activities of poachers, changing land use patterns in ranches within the Mara, and an increase in the number and range of livestock held on these ranches. . . .
The main cause of concern for the Tanzania conservationists and environmentalists is that the eco-system and ecology of Maasai Mara to high degree was similar to that of Serengeti National Park, thus worrying species on Serengeti to suffer the same consequences from activities during tarmac road construction and afterwards.
The government’s proposed high way from Musoma, the Mara regional headquarters is intended to enable Serengeti and Loliondo districts residents in Mara and Arusha regions respectively, mainly cattle grazers to access markets in lake (Victoria) zone towns as well as Arusha.
According to the government’s plan, the tarmac road would pass through Grumet, Mugumu, Northern section of Serengeti National Park, Loliondo, Sonjo, Engaruka and connect the existing tarmac road at Mto wa Mbu area. It has a linear length of 480 kilometers.
However, the main disputed distance is 53 Kilometers, which would cross-cut the National Park, at the area which is main way for the epic immigration of wildebeest and zebras to Maasai Mara.
The CSO Regional Programme Manager with the World wildlife Fund (WWF), Richard Rugemalira, told The Guardian on Sunday that the report on what faced Maasai Mara Game Reserve really raised the eyebrows for Tanzania conservationists, justifying the fund’s relentless efforts to oppose the construction of the highway.
Dr. George Jambiya, a lecturer in the University of Dar es Salaam’s Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, said the fears were increased by the fact the government authorities did not disclose how wide the proposed road would be.
“ The same government officials give contradicting statements on the matter, sometimes they say the road would be narrow to save the surrounding community and then are quoted as saying it would be highway; we thus fail to conclude which statement to take and which one to disregard,” he remarked.
The don maintained that since it was not clear as to how big the road would be, the same applied to the eventual number of human population within the park.
“We were surprised; we are told an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was conducted but that was done after the decision to construct the road was already made. It seems the EIA was a mere formality and not a prerequisite as no public hearing was conducted as required,” said the lecturer. The Conservationists have proposed for the alternative road of Lamadi – Bariadi – Maswa – Meatu – Karatu which would shift the transport operations from North to South of Serengeti National Park.
When contacted, the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Maimuna Tarishi, could neither confirm nor deny whether the proposed project could go ahead as per original plan or there was any consideration to the position of the environmental experts.
“The ministry responsible for this matter is that of Works and not this one (Natural resources and Tourism) so please forward your questions to the appropriate ministry,” said the PS repeatedly even after she was told that her ministry was contacted because the proposed road were to pass through the Serengeti National Park.
The disputed Musoma- Mugumu - Loliondo Mto wambu tarmac road was first mentioned in earnest by President Jakaya Kikwete during his 2005 presidential campaign in Mugumu. The National Wildlife Conservation Act of 2009 allows some activities to be carried out inside the parks but those activities should in no way interfere with the General Management Plan of the particular Park, which among other things covers curving areas (where animals give births), immigration ways.
The government has never hinted on the prospective financier of the project as available information suggests that most development partners who contribute to development projects were against the proposed road, and threatened to withdraw their financial assistance for 2011/2012 if the project went ahead.
Serengeti National Park is the world’s biggest park. According to the Tanzania Tourism Board’s 2009 statistics, the tourism industry ranked second in terms of contribution to the national Gross Domestic Product for a single sector, headed by mining, with about 50 pre cent tourism income being generated from Serengeti.
