Stop the Serengeti Highway

A planned road by the Tanzanian government threatens the great wildebeest migration.

Tanzania’s Serengeti game reserve hosts the largest overland migration in the world.  This spectacular display of nature happens every year around October, when nearly two million wildebeest, and millions of zebra and Thomson’s gazelles migrate from Kenya, crossing over the Mara River into Tanzania in pursuit of the rains.  Considered one of the ten natural travel wonders of the world, it is an awe-inspiring display of nature.

The Tanzanian government has proposed an Arusha-Musoma highway that will cut right through the important migration routes in the Serengeti National Park. As such a highway here would severely disrupt the great migration, it has attracted an international outcry, including protests from the Kenya Tourism Federation. “We are strongly opposed to the location of the current development and urge relevant authorities to consider an alternative route for this highway. This is in view of the adverse effect on the Serengeti and Masai Mara ecosystems the current proposal will have,” said the statement signed by KTF’s chief executive Agatha Juma.

So what are potential ramifications of a road cutting through the Serengeti? The Frankfurt Zoological Society argues that the development is likely to lead to the decline of wildebeest from 1.3 million to about 200,000. Construction of the road is expected to cost $480 million, with work set to begin early 2012.

The death of over a million wildebeest is too high of a price to pay for just another road. Act now by signing a petition to help save the Great Migration.  Join the Stop the Serengeti Highway page on Facebook.