Page 295 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

Figure 11.1 The proposed
Nairobi highway would run through
the northern part of Serengeti
Musoma Proposed new National Park. It would connect
highway route Tanzanian people on each side of
Lake Victoria the park but would cut across the
migration route for wildebeest and
KENYA other animals. Highway opponents
suggest an alternate route around the
Mwanza park’s southern edge.

Alternate
(southern bypass)
highway proposal
Shinyanga Arusha

Serengeti National Park TANZANIA
Other protected areas
Wildebeest movement (dry season)
Wildebeest movement (wet season)
Major roads To Indian Ocean

routes and kill countless animals in collisions. A highway would routes, including a bypass wrapping around the Serengeti’s
also provide access for poaching, the illegal killing of wildlife for southern end. Although longer, this southern route would
meat or body parts. Likewise, it would allow an entry corridor pass through more towns, serving five times as many peo-
for exotic plant species that could invade the ecosystem. A ple along the way. The World Bank and the German govern-
highway would encourage human settlement right up to the ment offered to finance feasibility studies and help fund this
park boundary, making the park an island of habitat hemmed alternative route.
in by agriculture, housing, and commerce. And by boosting In 2011, the Tanzanian government announced it was
development, the towns on Lake Victoria would grow into abandoning plans to run a paved highway through the park.
large cities, creating demand for still-larger transportation cor- Instead it would pave the highway outside the park, and leave
ridors in the future. For all these reasons, experts predicted that the 54-km (34-mi) portion running through the park unpaved.
the highway would diminish animal populations and possibly Conservationists rejoiced, but in 2012 the region’s people
destroy the migration spectacle. called on the government to keep pursuing the paved highway
Such an outcome could devastate tourism, so the region’s project, and Kikwete announced his support.
tourism operators opposed the highway. So did Kenyans, who The Serengeti is world renowned for its large charismatic
feared that the highway would prevent migratory animals from animals and for its distinction as one of Earth’s last intact and
crossing into Kenya’s Maasai Mara Reserve. In 2010 a Kenyan functional large ecosystems. Scientists are finding that Africa’s
nongovernmental organization, the African Network for Animal wildlife is declining rapidly (even within its parks), so whatever
Welfare, sought to stop the highway with a lawsuit in the East impacts a Serengeti highway might exert would have global
Africa Court of Justice, a body set up to adjudicate international ramifications for how we understand biological diversity on
matters in the region. The court in 2011 issued a permanent Earth. We would all be impoverished if the Serengeti’s biodi-
injunction prohibiting the road project. Tanzania challenged the versity is lost, so we must hope that Africans can find ways
court’s capacity to rule on the matter, but the court held fast to improve their people’s standard of living while conserving
to its order. the wildlife and natural systems around them. East Africa has
Meanwhile, international pressure rose on Tanzania to helped to pioneer win-win solutions in conservation thus far, so
abandon its plans. Highway opponents proposed alternative perhaps it will show the way yet again.

Our Planet of Life efforts to stem the loss of our planet’s priceless biological
diversity.
Rising human population and resource consumption are Biological diversity, or biodiversity, is the variety of life
putting ever-greater pressure on the flora and fauna of our across all levels of biological organization, including the
planet. We have been diminishing Earth’s diversity of life, diversity of species, genes, populations, and communities
the very quality that makes our planet so special. At the (p. 71). In this chapter we will examine current biodiversity
same time, many people around the world are working tire- trends and their relevance to our lives. We will then explore
294 lessly to save threatened animals, plants, and ecosystems in science-based solutions for conserving biodiversity.

M11_WITH7428_05_SE_C11.indd 294 12/12/14 3:00 PM