
Overview
The Serengeti National Park is one of the most recognisable national parks in the world but could be severed by government plans for a major commercial highway.
The Serengeti National Park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of the most recognisable national parks in the world. It supports possibly the greatest migration in the natural world of antelopes and 1.8 million wildebeest.
The government of Tanzania is planning a major commercial highway across the Serengeti National Park, linking Lake Victoria with eastern Tanzania. The government, via its agency TANROADS, proposes to construct a 171.5km road which will directly traverse the wildebeest migration route. It is part of a bigger plan to connect the proposed new port at Tanga to Musoma on Lake Victoria via Arusha and Lake Natron's shores.
The road will be funded by the Tanzanian government and the section from Serengeti to Musoma is estimated to cost £144 million. The government contracted two companies - one Indian and the other based in Tanzania - to jointly undertake an Environment and Social Impact Assessment.
The World Bank was approached 20 years ago to fund the road and shelved the project after the environmental impacts were appraised.