|
 The project aims to ensure the survival of millions of animals,
including the wildebeests and zebras that take part in the Great
Migration every year, and involves reviving a 36 sq km (14 sq mile)
wildlife corridor by extending the border of the park to Lake
Victoria's Gulf of Speke.
But guaranteeing animals safe passage to the second-largest
freshwater lake in the world will mean evicting hundreds of families
living on the land.
Government officials say moving about 8,000 people out of the Speke
Game Controlled Area in Bunda district is essential to conserve the
Serengeti's ecosystem as it faces worsening drought.
"This process is unavoidable due to the importance of the area to
the Serengeti-Maasai Mara ecosystem," said a report from the Mara
Regional Consultative Committee (RCC), a government body. "The cost
to implement these decisions now is much smaller than [it would be
after] waiting for more years."
A member of the RCC told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the
project's budget is an estimated $33 million.
The idea of protecting the corridor between Serengeti National Park
and Lake Victoria is not new. Conservationists have long called for
changes to land use policy in the area.
"There's no doubt this project could have a lot of benefits to
wildlife," said Serengeti Chief Park Warden William Mwakilema.
UNDER PRESSURE
Government reports suggest that poaching in the park is partly
driven by surging demand for wild meat in densely populated areas
surrounding the park.
The spread of cattle raising and farming also poses a threat to the
area's wildlife, experts say, and the continuing stresses of trying
to adapt to the effects of climate change could push residents to
damage the park’s ecosystem, through wood cutting, poaching or other
activities.
The Tanzanian government insists its plan will be good for people
are well as animals. Residents due for eviction from the villages of
Serengeti, Nyatwari and Tamau have been promised land elsewhere in
the district, while people living near the Gulf of Speke should
benefit from a boost in tourist trade, officials say.
Serengeti National Park, which covers an area of 14,763 sq km, is
one of Tanzania’s most popular tourist destinations. The tourism
industry is the largest foreign currency earner in the country,
supporting over 27,000 jobs and generating 25 percent of Tanzania's
foreign exchange.
[to top of second column] |
Bank of Tanzania statistics show earnings from tourism hit $1.76
billion in 2013, and are continuing to rise.
Local residents, however, are critical of the government's
relocation plan and instead propose the establishment of a joint
wildlife management area in the Gulf of Speke.
Earlier attempts to expand the park's protected area have been met
with resistance. In March 2013, protesters forced the government to
abandon a plan to prohibit Maasai herders from grazing their cattle
on a large tract of land in Loliondo village, Arusha region, which
had been identified as a crucial breeding ground for migrating
wildebeest.
Many people predict more protests over the latest plan.
"We already have too many national parks. Do we live for animals or
do animals live for us?” asked Mwami Nyamaka, a resident of Nyatwari
village.
Rights groups and lawyers warn that before the government starts the
project, it must strike the correct balance between the rights of
the people and the need to expand the park.
Onesmo Ole Ngurumwa, an expert on African pastoralism who leads the
Tanzania Human Rights Defenders Coalition, said people and animals
deserve equal treatment. He said the government has often ignored
the welfare of its citizens in favor of wildlife.
"I don't dispute any plan to conserve nature and wildlife," he said.
"But we know from past experiences that evictions sometimes take
place before people are given proper notice or the compensation due
to them. People's lives cannot be sacrificed in favor of wildlife."
(Editing by Laurie Goering and Belinda Goldsmith; Thomson Reuters
Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, covers
humanitarian news, women's rights, corruption and climate change.
Visit www.trust.org))
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright
2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 |
