World Bank offers to save Serengeti from bisecting road

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The World Bank has offered to help fund an alternative route for a planned road project that would otherwise cut through Tanzania's world famous Serengeti National Park, according to the German-based NGO Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). When announced last year, the road project raised protests from environmentalists, scientists, and Tanzanian tour companies, but the Tanzanian government refused to shift plans to an alternative southern route for the road, thereby bypassing the park.

The World Bank has offered to help fund an alternative route for a planned road project that would otherwise cut through Tanzania's world famous Serengeti National Park, according to the German-based NGO Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union (NABU). When announced last year, the road project raised protests from environmentalists, scientists, and Tanzanian tour companies, but the Tanzanian government refused to shift plans to an alternative southern route for the road, thereby bypassing the park.

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According to NABU, however, the World Bank may be preparing to settle the dispute. Reportedly the bank is opposed to the route that would cut through the Serengeti, and provide funding for the alternative plan.

"The regular pulse of the migration is the very heartbeat that keeps the Serengeti alive," says Dr Barbara Maas, NABU International’s Head of International Species Conservation. "Without it, it will die. The World Bank’s initiative throws a lifeline to this unique wilderness and the animals and people that depend on it."

The Serengeti is home to one of the world's last intact migrations of large terrestrial mammals, as every year one and a half million wildebeest along with hundreds of thousands of zebras and Thomson's gazelles brave lions, crocodile-infested rivers, and humans to migrate to seasonal grazing.

Article continues: http://news.mongabay.com/2011/0131-hance_serengeti.html