Tanzania's government announced the construction of a highway to link Lake Victoria in north-west Tanzania with the east of the country, effectively bisecting the Serengeti. Construction is due to begin in 2012
The Serengeti National Park in Tanzania, along with the contiguous Mara Reserve in its northern neighbour Kenya, is home to some of the most magnificent wildlife on earth, including 70 species of large mammal and more than 500 species of bird. It is also home to the largest remaining great mammal migration in the world, with over a million wildebeest, zebra and other plains game following annual rainfall cycles from their grazing grounds in the south, to fertile grazing in the north in July.
The Serengeti/Mara system represents one of the last strongholds of Africa's unique biodiversity. If the irrevocable damage of this system is to be avoided, Tanzania's plans to bisect it with a road must be vigorously opposed at all levels.
President Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete
United Republic of Tanzania
PO Box 2483
Dar es Salaam
TANZANIA
E-mail: permsec@estabs.go.tz
Tanzania's High Commissioner in London at the following address:
Mr Chabaka F Kilumanga
Acting Tanzania High Commissioner
Tanzania High Commission
3 Stratford Place
London W1C 1AS
