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The Serengeti North Road Project
A Commercial Road through Serengeti National Park jeopardizes the Integrity of a World Heritage Site.
Alternative Routes could easily meet the economic needs and even improve the Conservation Status of Serengeti National Park
Photo: Reinhard Radke
Background to the Commercial North Road Project
The History: The road through the Northern Serengeti was first discussed about 14 years ago and after an Environmental Impact Study by Norconsult in November 1996, the idea was refused for negative environmental impacts(1).
The Present: The President of Tanzania, Jakaya Kikwete, has approved the plan to construct a major commercial road across the Serengeti National Park, linking the Lake Victoria area with eastern Tanzania. The road will cut directly through the Serengeti wilderness, which completely bisects the path of the world famous annual wildebeest and zebra migration comprised of nearly 2 million animals. The decision was made public and reported in the Tanzanian press. (See links on the last page of this presentation). The final decision is expected after an environmental impact study assigned by the government is completed.
The Need: The intention of the road is to better link the Serengeti and Loliondo Districts to the National grid of major roads. The proposed road is suggested in the Government’s 10 years Transport Sector Improvement Program (TSIP; 2).
The Problem: The presently suggested routing of the commercial road is for 53 kilometers running through the Serengeti National Park, dissecting the northern wilderness area of the Park. Giving the increasing traffic, the road might become the greatest risk to the wildebeest migration and the will compromise the integrity of the Serengeti as a natural wonder of the world upon which Tanzania’s tourism depends.
The need of linking Serengeti District and Loliondo District to the national grid of major
roads is undisputed but can be solved
without dissecting the Serengeti.
The proposed South Road and population density
SERENGETI
NEW ROAD
PROPOSED ALTERNATIVE ROUTE
The wilderness areas of the north are a critical habitat for endangered species like rhinos and wild dogs.
The Serengeti Management Plan allows no commercials roads at all in these areas.
During the dry season, the wildebeests rely on critical water sources in the Masai Mara,
north of the planned road.
The Serengeti National Park
Planned Commercial Road through Serengeti and the world famous Wildebeest Migration
Loliondo
Mugumu
The planned Serengeti road in the future
“If you build a road – you will have increasing traffic!” That is true everywhere in the world and consequences must be evaluated carefully.
Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern DR Congo have no rail links and are dependent on the northern road link from Mombasa and the southern link from Dar es Salaam. Once a tarmac road is built that links the existing tarmac Musoma – Mwanza Road to Arusha it will be the best and easiest link between Mombasa Port with Rwanda, Burundi and Eastern Congo and it will almost certainly attract large amounts of heavy long-haul traffic.
Presently, 6 million tons are moved on these roads to central Africa every year, on 150,000 truckloads; that is on average 416 large trucks a day potentially rumbling through Serengeti. This road traffic is increasing year after year. (Africa Trade growth as per 2009 is 30% per annum. WTO)
The Wildebeest Migration and the new Road
Initially the new road will not have a great impact on the Wildebeest Migration. But the Wildebeest Migration will have a great impact on the traffic. Increasing traffic will result in an increasing toll on human life and equipment through vehicle -
wildlife collisions. These – unacceptable – losses will force TanRoads to consider fencing.
Photo: Felix Borner / FZS
Such fencing would truly mean the end of the Great Migration as the wildebeest, zebras and eland could not reach the Mara River that is their only water source in the dry season and would die at the fence-line. Botswana lost its wildebeest and zebra migration with such fences. South Africa lost similarly in Kruger National Park. And in Canada, the elk migration in Banff National Park was also compromised because of a dissecting road.
The Wildebeest Migration and the new Road
Photo: Reinhard Radke
The loss of the Serengeti Migration – the last of its kind in the world – would not only mean the end of Tanzania’s priceless natural and national heritage, the end of the Serengeti as an iconic World Heritage Site but also a significant decline in tourism in the Serengeti and in neighbouring Masai Mara Reserve in Kenya.
The major reasons for not having a commercial road through the Serengeti National Park
• In contradiction to the World Heritage Convention, the TANAPA Policy and the approved Serengeti General Management Plan that does not allow commercial roads in wilderness areas
• Strong negative impact on Tanzania’s reputation as world leader in conservation • Direct negative impact on tourism revenue in Serengeti and countrywide. • Direct negative impact on the ecology, wildlife, migration, wilderness, security and
outstanding universal value of the Serengeti • Degradation of the iconic value that the Serengeti has in the world as the
greatest natural wildlife area.
Photo: Anup Shah
UNESCO: Serengeti’s status – world heritage site in danger?
UNESCO stated on impact of plans to built Serengeti Northern Road on the 34th Session of the World Herritage Committee, 25 July - 03 August
2010, Brazil:
“UNESCO might consider that this proposed alignment could result in irreversible damage to the property’s Outstanding
Universal Value and would constitute a clear case for inscribing Serengeti National Park on the List of World Heritage in Danger and notes that feasible and less
environmentally damaging alternative to the North Road exist, including the South Road proposal”.
Serengeti as World Heritage Site
The Operational Guidelines of the World Heritage Convention states: • The State Party is obliged to demonstrate that any new development will not impact
on the Outstanding Universal Value of the property. • An Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) must be carried out that clearly
demonstrates that the planned Serengeti road will have no impact on the values and integrity of the site.
• The State Party must submit such an EIA to the World Heritage Committee before taking a decision on the development.
• A development that leads to the loss of an Outstanding Universal Value could lead to down-listing or even removing of a site from the World Heritage List, with potentially grave impact on a countries reputation and tourism trade.
In a meeting of Heads of Parks from 14 African countries in the Kruger National Park in 2008 there was unanimous agreement that no commercial roads should lead through National Parks.
UNESCO recommend strongly that existing commercial roads should be relocated outside Parks and that new ones should be routed around Park boundaries.
Wildlife – Vehicle Collisions
Wildlife – Vehicle collisions on a commercial road will take a heavy toll on wildlife but even more so on people and equipment.
In Europe roads through wildlife areas are the cause of more than 300 fatal accidents and over one billion $ loss of equipment.
With many thousands of wildebeest crossing the road, the damage to property and the loss of human life is expected to increase immense.
Commercial Roads in wildlife areas have proved to be a disaster all over the world
Photo: Okapia
Ecological Consequences 27 Renowned Scientists strongly oppose the plans to build
a road through Serengeti. A team of well-respected scientists has released a joint concern addressing their hesitation to build a new road that would bisect the Serengeti National Park. With apprehension to 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 has been published in Nature on 16 September 2010.
They have predicted the following negative impacts: • Fragmentation of habitat for wildlife • Disruption and obstruction of migration routes • Introduction of invasive plants, animals, and disease • Increased mortality due to wildlife-vehicle collisions • Intensive, organized poaching, especially of reintroduced rhino • Loss of habitat from human settlement and agriculture • Increased human-wildlife conflicts requiring additional measures • They estimate that it 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”
• The proposed road cuts through a critical wilderness area that is essential to the migration. The migration itself could collapse, with a devastating effect on all wildlife and the entire ecosystem.
Ecological Consequences
Evidence from other parts of the world, combined with our deep understanding of the Serengeti ecosystem, makes this clear: A world treasure will be seriously threatened. The Serengeti, once gone, will never come back.
Tony Sinclair, one of the world’s foremost experts on the Serengeti, has said: • “The Serengeti Ecosystem has been studied for 50 years and is well documented. These studies show that the whole
system depends on the impacts of this massive migration, so that the ecosystem itself will change completely when the migration disappears. Essentially the Serengeti as we know it will no longer exist. History has shown that once we start this process of road development, there is no turning back on the sequence.”
Andrew Dobson, conservation biologist at Princeton, has said: • “If the wildebeest population declines by even fifty percent it could lead to an increase in the fire frequency in the park, as
less grass would be eaten – this could flip the entire system from a major carbon sink into a major source of carbon.”
Frankfurt Zoological Society: • “We sincerely believe that the road will have disastrous effects on the entire ecosystem. The northern parts of the Serengeti
and the adjacent Masai Mara are critical for the wildebeest and zebra migration during the dry season, as it is the only permanent year-round water source for these herds. Recent calculations show that if wildebeest were to be cut off from these critical dry season areas, the population would likely decline from 1.3 million animals to about 200,000 (meaning a collapse to far less than a quarter of its current population and most likely the end of the great migration).”
Direct impact of proposed road
Planned Serenge+ Commercial Road
Habitat fragmenta+on and modifica+on
Restric+ons on animal movements
and migra+on routes
Direct wildlife mortality (cri+cal for rare and
endangered species) and human causali+es
Hydrological system altered, soil erosion
Introduc+on of exo+c species and environmental contamina+on
Increased impact from human ac+vi+es:
poaching, rhino security, wilderness experience
Economic Consequences: Impact on Tourism industry The most important reason tourists are visiting the Serengeti is man’s longing to be part of nature, his eternal search for wilderness and paradise.
Serengeti is one of the last places on earth that represents how the world looked a million years ago.
A tarmac road with lorry traffic destroys this illusion. The attraction that the Serengeti has in the world will be lost and with it the admiration for Tanzania and the income from tourism, presently the number one forex earner in the country. (Over 1 billion $$ in 2009, over 600,000 people employed)
The loss of migration will lead to reduced populations of other wild animals that are attractive to tourists – such as lions and cheetahs.
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul” John Muir
Photo: Anup Shah
Consequences of Proposed Serengeti Road
Commercial road with increased traffic
Tanzania’s reputa+on tarnished
Aesthe+c value reduced
Erosion of Serenge+’s ‘Outstanding
Universal Value’
Reduced value for “High income – low impact” tourism development
Decreased tourism revenue countrywide
Nega+ve impact on wildlife Down-‐lis+ng of
Serenge+ to ‘World Heritage
in Danger’
The importance of TANAPA sovereignty on all National Park Roads
National Policies for National Parks in Tanzania: Article 9.10.1. “Park roads are not intended to provide fast access and will not be planned, designed, or constructed if it can be demonstrated that such a road will create THOROUGHFARES through parks that will generate or attract non-park related activities and traffic.”
TANAPA, on the parks road network is enforcing: • Strict speed limit of 50 km an hour • No night driving • No off-road driving • Restriction on size of lorries • Pollution and waste disposal
As demonstrated in Mikumi National Park (and in other parks worldwide) such control is not possible on a commercial road.
Traffic through national parks does not only affect wildlife, but also has an impact on people. Accidents are likely to be numerous during the wildebeest migration when literally thousands of animals can be on the road. This will inevitably lead to loss of human life.
Economics of North- versus South- Road Alignment
Villages to be connected to market by new road
North Road
South Road
The economics of different road alignments linking Arusha and Musoma Region
North South
App. Distance of new tarmac 421 km 383 km
Number of people served along new roads (TBS ) 431,000 2,278,000
Not only is the proposed road likely to impact the iconic status of the Serengeti but the southern road is shorter and would provide access for more agricultural markets – the southern road passes through important agricultural areas in Tanzania, the northern road does not. Over 5 times as many people could be serviced.
This would provide a major opportunity to increase agricultural output and distribution across Manyara-, Shinyanga- and Mwanza-Regions and existing traffic through Serengeti National Park can be reduced.
Way forward The only way to avoid to severely reduce the conservation and economic value of the Serengeti
National Park, its status as a World Heritage Site and endangering and damaging Tanzania’s reputation as world leader in conservation is to look for another alignment of the road outside the National Park
After seeing the destruction the road through Mikumi National Park caused, the Government of Tanzania has rejected other proposals for major public road building in Parks such as recently in Tarangire National Park. A road through the Serengeti would provide even more human fatalities and wildlife impact than the road through Mikumi as wildlife densities in Serengeti are much higher. Recently the Government decided to reroute a planned tarmac road around Katavi National Park instead of dissecting it as originally planned.
• As suggested by a world bank study and Tanzania National Park, the planned road should be routed around the Serengeti National Park to the south. (The existing Ngorongoro – Serengeti road will remain as a tourist access road only) (1)
• The southern version makes more economic sense as it will be serving over two million people • It will not impact on the value of the world famous Serengeti National Park and World Heritage
Site but immensely contribute to the economic development of Karatu, Meatu, Maswa, Bariadi and Magu – Districts
• The road from Arusha to Loliondo should be rehabilitated to link Loliondo efficiently
Any road in the Serengeti National Park should be for tourist access and park management – not for transit and has to be under the control of TANAPA, including gates, no night driving, avoiding critical areas for conservation, low speed…
Way forward • Plan and build the south road tarmac
connection from Karatu to join the existing Shinyanga - Musoma Road at Meatu.
• Upgrade the existing Murram road to Tarmac from Meatu to Lamadi
• Upgrade the Arusha - Loliondo Road • Close the existing murram National
Park Road through Seronera for commercial through-traffic and designate it for tourism access only
• Improve the Musoma – Mugumu access road
See following map
Photo: Anup Shah
Way forward:
the proposed South Road alignment
Existing Tarmac Roads
Existing Murram roads that need upgrade
Proposed new south Road
National Parks road, tourism access only
Existing Murram Roads anderer
Tanzanian President’s Commitments to Nature Conservation in Tanzania
"In accepting the trusteeship of our wildlife we solemnly declare that we will do everything in our power to make sure that our children's
grand-children will be able to enjoy this rich and precious inheritance.“ Dr. Julius K. Nyerere, first president of Tanzania
On 21 May 2010, when the first rhinos of a big rhino repatriation arrived in the Serengeti, President Dr. Jakaya M. Kikwete emphazised on the celebrations:
„This event is a stark reminder of what went wrong and the past and a lesson for what needs to be done to prevent it from happening again. My government is fully committed to conservation of wildlife in general
and to rhinos particularly.”
There are many roads that can be built but there is only one Serengeti.
Frankfurt Zoological Society: [email protected] | www.fzs.org
(1) The northern road through the Serengeti National Park was vigorously rejected by a Norconsult study in November 1996. See the United Republic of Tanzania Ministry of Works, Technical and Socio-Economic Feasibility Study: Makuyuni – Musoma Road, Final Report. A different conclusion was reached by a more recent report by Inter-Consult, prepared for the Ministry of Infrastructure Development in November 2007. See “Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS) Environmental and Social Impact Assessment, Feasibility Study and Preliminary Design for Natta-Mugumu-Tabora B-Klein’s Camp-Loliondo Road (239km) Upgrading Project” Volume 5, Environmental Impact Assessment Report: Final Report. This report recognizes that there will be an impact on wildlife, but argues that it can be mitigated.
(2) http://allafrica.com/stories/201007051059.html
(3) Economic Impact on travel industry by savetheserengeti.org: http://www.savetheserengeti.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Econ_impact_10-06__sm.pdf
(4) Nature 467, 272-273 (16 September 2010) | doi:10.1038/467272a; Published online 15 September 2010; http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v467/n7313/full/467272a.html
(5) UNESCO: http://whc.unesco.org/en/sessions/34COM/
Frankfurt Zoological Society: [email protected] | www.fzs.org
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