Will Traffic Stop the Greatest Migration on Earth?

When you think of the last untouched wild places on Earth, the Serengeti probably comes to mind. The Serengeti is about 12,000 square miles in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya, but as the iconic image of Africa's unique ecosystems, the best-known wildlife sanctuary in the world looms much larger. In addition to the protection of endangered species, like black rhinos, this is where the greatest mammal migration on the planet takes place.

National Geographic, writing about Serengeti National Park, said: "it's the landscape where we become human." And the Tanzanian government wants to run a highway right through the middle of it.

The highway would cut a swath through the migration route. This means more than just the potential for exotic road kill. More than a million wildebeest, along with hundreds of thousands zebras and gazelles, traverse the Serengeti every year. If that didn't happen — if they were stopped by traffic — the entire ecosystem of the Serengeti would be in danger.

The construction, and the road itself, could prevent tens of thousands of animals from reaching their destination where food and water awaits, meaning they'll die of starvation and dehydration. The migrating animals are also a food source themselves for lions, hyenas, and other predators. And think about the amount of fertilizer created by a million animals — the wildebeest help maintain the food chain from the plants on up. Instead of the wildebeest-cultivated native plants, a highway would carry seeds and pollen from invasive species throughout the region.

The decimation of habitat would threaten the 600,000 jobs created by wildlife tourism in Tanzania. The highway that would give access to small communities would also give poachers greater access to the Serengeti. Roads have a tendency to bring development and disease with them, too. Animals could get hit by cars, which is dangerous for both people and wildlife.

There's no shortage of reasons why the highway is a bad idea, and there aren't many ways around them. Fencing in the highway would protect cars and animals from collision, but it would bring the migration to a dead halt. Not fencing in the highway wouldn't necessarily help either, since many animals won't cross roads, and the litany of other dangers would be essentially unchecked.

Of course, African nations shouldn't be shut out of development; a road for commercial traffic connecting east and west could change things, for better or worse, for several small villages. But there is a better way. A road across the south would bypass the Serengeti and keep the migration routes intact. As Save the Serengeti says: The choice need not be between people and nature.

Serengeti National Park is a World Heritage Site and, as home to the last great migration and refuge to several endangered species, the highway proposal is not a local issue. It's a question of conservation that affects all of us. Change.org community member Carin Zellerman started a petition to Stop the Serengeti Highway. Join the more than 4,500 people who have already signed on and ask the Tanzanian government to relocate the road and save the Serengeti.

Photo credit: daretothink