Ruling on permanent injunction to block Serengeti Highway set for March

TANZANIA (eTN) – The East African Court of Justice will in mid-March this year decide whether the permanent injunction handed to the Tanzanian government to stop the construction of a highway through

TANZANIA (eTN) – The East African Court of Justice will in mid-March this year decide whether the permanent injunction handed to the Tanzanian government to stop the construction of a highway through the Serengeti National Park should stand.

The Tanzania government had this week lodged an appeal to the East African Court of Justice disputing the permanent injunction the regional court handed to authorities, blocking construction of the controversial highway across the Serengeti plains.

The East African Court of Justice had earlier handed the government of Tanzania a permanent injunction to block construction of a tarmac highway, following a suit by the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) contesting Tanzania’s intention to build a “super highway” crossing the Serengeti, arguing it would be hazardous to animals.

Lawyer Saitabao ole Kanchory of Kanchory & Co. Advocates, representing the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW), had in 2010 filed the case at the East African Court of justice chambers in Arusha looking for legal action to block construction of this road.

Besides an interim order of injunction, ANAW also demanded that the court should declare that the action to construct the road is unlawful and infringes on the provisions of the East African Community Treaty, and requested a permanent injunction prohibiting Tanzania from constructing the highway through the fragile national park ecosystem.

The move to court follows what is being described as the persistence by the Tanzanian government to implement the plan in full knowledge that the action is unlawful and infringes provisions of the East African Community Treaty specifically Articles 5, 89, 111, 112, 114, and 116.

Despite conceding the serious ecological and environmental hazards of the proposed highway, identifying and acknowledging more than 15 severe negative impacts of implementing the project in its Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Report, Tanzania still proposes to proceed with the said project.

The government intends to build the road from a section that will link the Mara region on the shores of Lake Victoria with the tourist city of Arusha. The plan to construct this road was elaborated later by Tanzania’s Prime Minister, Mizengo, who claimed that the scheme would not damage the fragile ecosystem of the Serengeti and that the road would be tarred up to either side of the park.

But while some local residents are pushing the project to go ahead, the international environmental community has expressed fears from the outset that the highway could lead to the collapse of the planetโ€™s largest remaining migratory system.

Over one-and-a-half-million wildebeests and about 200,000 zebras migrate northwards to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve in neighboring Kenya every year, before returning to the Serengeti.

The planned road had attracted criticism from international conservationists who claim that the project would jeopardize the annual wildebeest migration and other wildlife between Serengeti and Kenyaโ€™s Maasai Mara Game Reserve, attracting 39,000 protesters across the world last May.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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