Tanzania sets up task force
2010-09-24 18:00
Dar es Salaam - The Tanzanian government has set up a task force to advise it on the planned construction of a controversial two-lane road through its UN-listed Serengeti national park, an official said.
"We have formed a task force to study the matter and present its report to the president (Jakaya Kikwete) as soon as possible," Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, Ladislaus Komba, said Thursday night.
"At present the government has not changed its position on the road," he said, declining to disclose the task force's composition.
Some local environmentalists say the tarmac road through Mikumi National Park in central Tanzania has led to death of many animals that are hit by speeding vehicles despite road bumps.
Some 27 biodiversity experts recently warned in the science journal Nature, that the proposed Serengeti highway would destroy one of the world's last great wildlife sanctuaries.
"The road will cause an environmental disaster," the experts said, urging the government to look at an alternative route that runs far south of the UN-listed site.
The planned road slashes right across the annual migratory route taken by 1.3 million wildebeest, part of the last great mass movements of animals on Earth.
The wildebeest play a vital role in a fragile ecosystem, maintaining the vitality of Serengeti's grasslands and sustaining threatened predators such as lions, cheetahs and wild dogs, they said.
Tanzania's president has repeatedly defended the planned road, saying the stretch crossed by migrating animals will be gravelled rather than tarmacked with the aim of reducing speed. Sceptics say lorries will speed even on gravel.