A new road through the Serengeti National Park, connecting the eastern and western parts of northern Tanzania, could provide much needed development opportunities to the people in the region and spur growth of the national economy. But it would endanger the Great Migration and potentially trigger the collapse of the Serengeti ecosystem.
Twice a year, the Great Migration leads the herds of wildebeest, zebra and Thomson’s gazelle through the northern part of the Serengeti National Park. The area does not offer much to the animals, they are merely passing through on their way to the Mara river, the only year-round source of water in the Serengeti ecosystem. And beyond the river lie the important dry-season feeding grounds of the Masai Mara in Kenya. Until they migrate back south when the rains set in again, the animals feed in their northern refuge.
Interrupting the great migration
The routes and the timing of the Great Migration have developed over millennia. However, a new obstacle on the way of all animals moving through the ecosystem could materialize: In 2010, the Government of Tanzania announced plans to build a road linking the coastal region of the country to the Lake Victoria region. It wasn’t for the first time. The `northern route’ has been under discussion for the past 30 years. And it is to present day.
Connecting the towns of Arusha and Musoma, the road would run from east to west through the Loliondo Game Controlled Area and, for 53 kilometres, traverse Serengeti National Park. The road would link the East African ports of Mombasa, Dar es Salaam and Tanga to the countries of central Africa. With the rapid growth of trade, freight traffic between countries is set to increase significantly.
Heavy traffic through Serengeti
Heavy-duty trucks could be passing through the Serengeti every day. With the migrating herds crossing the road twice a year and many more times in drier years with erratic rainfall, accidents are likely to happen frequently. If the road were fenced off to make it safer for passing vehicles, it would block the migration routes with dramatic impacts. Cut off from the only secure dry-season water source, mass die-offs of several species would be likely.
Fences, roads and habitat fragmentation have caused the collapse of at least six of the last terrestrial migratory species left in the world. The Serengeti wildebeest population could be reduced to less than a quarter of its current size. What follows is the collapse of the ecosystem to a less diverse and less productive state. Previous evaluations concluded that a road would ruin the Serengeti’s status as a major tourist destination and source of revenue for the country’s economy and the National Parks’ authority.
Conservation and development go hand-in-hand
There is an alternative to the northern route that goes around the southern end of the park using an existing network of gravel roads. Only marginally longer than the northern route, the southern bypass would connect many more settlements and provide access to agricultural markets for more than two million people. It would allow crucial development in rural Tanzania to proceed with minimal or no damage to tourism and the Serengeti ecosystem.