A Canadian scientist who probed controversial plans to build a highway through one of Africa's ecological jewels -- Serengeti National Park -- warns the project could devastate the area's signature wildebeest population and threaten other iconic species in the Tanzanian and Kenyan wilderness.
The proposed 53-kilometre highway, backed by Tanzania's government, would cut across the northern part of the world-famous nature reserve, potentially isolating about one-third of the vast grassland ecosystem that's a staple of wildlife documentaries.
University of Guelph biologist John Fryxell, whose research on Serengeti wildlife was featured in last fall's big-budget National Geographic television series, Great Migrations, has co-authored a study of the proposed road with four other scientists, including University of B.C. zoologist Anthony Sinclair, that concludes the park's "keystone" wildebeest herds could decline by up to 35 per cent if the two-lane route proposal goes ahead.
"This project has the potential to transform one of the greatest wonders in the world and one of the world's most iconic national parks," Fryxell said in a summary of the study, published in the latest issue of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS ONE.
"The wildebeest migration plays an important role in a number of key ecological processes, so this finding has important ramifications for ecosystem biodiversity, structure and function."
Fryxell said there's no question that road construction through the park would have major economic benefits for Tanzania. But he said the potential impact on Serengeti tourism could negate many of those benefits, and suggests an alternative route for the highway and other mitigation efforts would limit the environmental impact.
In October, at a Great Migrations preview in Washington, Tanzania's ambassador to the U.S. acknowledged international concern about the planned road but said her country has to balance environmental and economic interests.
"For poor countries that are developing, that need to develop, to grow their economies, these are very tough choices," Mwanaidi Maajar said at the time.
"The people who live in and around Serengeti do not look at biodiversity exactly the way we look at it out here, by the international community. For them, it is a question of survival and a question of need, and especially when you need a road or you need electricity."
Last week, the German environmental group NABU claimed that the World Bank is preparing to underwrite the additional costs that Tanzania would incur by building a bypass around the park's southern boundaries. Fryxell said that plan could be a viable solution.
While he and his co-authors, including researchers from the University of Missouri, University of Florida and Princeton University, are "trying to keep the language from spiralling into hyperbole," Fryxell said the roadway as currently planned would inflict serious damage on the park.
"It's very important to not be careless about that wildlife heritage, because once lost, it's very hard to regain."
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