I spoke with Boyd Norton, friend of WILD, world-class photographers and passionate conservationist, yesterday about the urgent issue threatening the Serengeti (Tanzania and Kenya).

Migration Map with proposed highway, Serengeti

About a week ago, he returned from leading one of his photo tours in Serengeti, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and discovered a major tragedy in the making — the biggest threat to the Serengeti ecosystem in decades. A major highway (in red on the map) is planned to cut across the migration path of millions of animals. (The migration paths are the colored arrows)

Photo by Boyd Norton, Serengeti

This high-speed highway could have hundreds of trucks each day. Imagine the wildlife carnage from these speeding trucks. The road would also be the perfect pathway for a huge increase in poaching in the Serengeti and tourism, dependent on this great migration, would be significantly impacted if not completely destroyed. You can see how magnificent the migration of wildebeest is from the Youtube video.

There is not a lot of information available on the highways plans, but big money interests appear to be behind this. Advocates should speak up for the safer alternative route (in light green on the map) that bypasses Serengeti altogether.

If you care about this incredible ecosystem, you can contact the Tanzanian Embassy (ubalozi at tanzaniaembassy-us.org) and let them know that this would be one of the greatest wildlife disasters in history.  You could also contact the Tanzania National Parks (info at tanzaniaparks.com).

Boyd and fellow concerned advocates have also started a facebook page to post updates about the highway.  In just a short time, nearly 4,000 people have become a fan of this page – showing the scale of international concern for the Serengeti.

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