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Highway Splitting Serengeti National Park Called Off
by Kimberley Mok, Montreal, Canada on 06.23.11
Travel & Nature
Photo: Wildebeest in Serengeti National Park's Ngorongoro Crater (El Toñio, Creative Commons via Flickr)
Here's some good news for today: a proposed road project cutting through the northern portion of Serengeti National Park, which would have disrupted the planet's largest annual migration of millions of African wildebeest, antelope and zebra -- has been cancelled by the Tanzanian government.
With the government's prediction of more than a million vehicles crossing the highway annually by 2035, Mongobay reports that impact studies showed that the proposed highway would have decreased the wildebeest population by a third, in addition to bringing even more poachers in. A leaked government ecological assessment also found that predator populations of lions, hyenas, leopards and crocodiles would have been affected as well, due to decreasing numbers of prey.
According to Mongobay, though the government's official stance on the road is to connect remote Serengeti communities in its north, many observers believe that it may be part of an "industrial corridor" to expedite the inland transportation of raw materials to the coast.
Highway Splitting Serengeti National Park Called Off : TreeHugger
by Kimberley Mok, Montreal, Canada on 06.23.11
Travel & Nature
Photo: Wildebeest in Serengeti National Park's Ngorongoro Crater (El Toñio, Creative Commons via Flickr)
Here's some good news for today: a proposed road project cutting through the northern portion of Serengeti National Park, which would have disrupted the planet's largest annual migration of millions of African wildebeest, antelope and zebra -- has been cancelled by the Tanzanian government.
With the government's prediction of more than a million vehicles crossing the highway annually by 2035, Mongobay reports that impact studies showed that the proposed highway would have decreased the wildebeest population by a third, in addition to bringing even more poachers in. A leaked government ecological assessment also found that predator populations of lions, hyenas, leopards and crocodiles would have been affected as well, due to decreasing numbers of prey.
According to Mongobay, though the government's official stance on the road is to connect remote Serengeti communities in its north, many observers believe that it may be part of an "industrial corridor" to expedite the inland transportation of raw materials to the coast.
Highway Splitting Serengeti National Park Called Off : TreeHugger