From the Serengeti to Lake Natron: is the Tanzanian government aiming to destroy its wildlife and lands?

 

source: Mongabay.com

 

What's happening inTanzania? This is a question making the rounds in conservation andenvironmental circles. Why is a nation that has so much invested in its wildlands and wild animals willing to pursue projects that appear destined not onlyto wreak havoc on the East African nation's world-famous wildlife andecosystems, but to cripple its economically-important tourism industry? Themost well known example is the proposed road bisecting Serengeti National Park,which scientists, conservationists, the UN, and foreign governments alike havecondemned. But there are other concerns among conservationists, including thefast-tracking of soda ash mining in East Africa's most important breedingground for millions of lesser flamingo, and the recent announcement to nullifyan application for UNESCO Heritage Status for a portion of Tanzania's EasternArc Mountains, a threatened forest rich in species found no-where else.According to President Jakaya Kikwete, Tanzania is simply trying to provide forits poorest citizens (such as communities near the Serengeti and the EasternArc Mountains) while pursuing western-style industrial development.

"We have to develop to an industrialized country and to get there weshould think through, plan and put strategies in place. Unlike other countrieswhich are forced to import raw materials, our country has all the raw materialsnecessary for developing our industries," Kikwete said recently inresponse to the push to mine soda ash in Lake Natron.

But Kikwete's critics contend that he is trading Tanzania's most preciousnatural heritages—and some of the greatest wildlife spectacles on Earth—for anindustrial slough that will enrich a few, mostly foreigners, but leaveTanzania, and its citizens, bereft.

"Kikwete's spiteful attitude towards the World Heritage site and hisstrange determination to drive a road through Serengeti make him lookincreasingly old-fashioned and vindictive," Andrew Dobson, Professor ofEcology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University, told mongabay.com.Dobson has conducted numerous studies in the Serengeti, including recent oneson the impact of the proposed roads.

There are reports that the Chinese are involved in Tanzania's plans, pushingthe Serengeti road—and willing to fund it—in order to create a massivethoroughfare for mined minerals to be brought cheaply from the interior to thecoast then shipped to China to continue its breakneck growth. But at this pointthese rumors are unsubstantiated, and the only ones who can answer suchquestions are those in the top levels of Tanzanian government.

In the end, the projects may be more about local politics than anything else.

Read more on http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0414-hance_tanzania_gov.html