Legal action against the Serengeti highway in the East African Court of Justice.
Update January 29, 2012
The East Africa Court of Justice (EACJ) Appellate Division will make a ruling on March 15th 2012 on whether the Tanzanian government has grounds to oppose the jurisdiction of the court to determine whether it should go ahead to construct a road through the world famous Serengeti National Park.
If the higher regional court decides against the appeal made by the Tanzanian Attorney General, then it means that the court case against Dar es Salaam’s wish to construct the road will go to full trial.
The case was filed by the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW) challenging the government’s decision on the grounds that if constructed, the road would have far-reaching consequences on the Serengeti-Mara ecosystem which is shared between Kenya and Tanzania. ANAW had wanted the Tanzanian government compelled to stop the construction of the road through a permanent injunction
The announcement on the ruling date was made on January 24, 2012 by the President of the EACJ’s Appellate Division, Justice Harold Reginald Nsekela in Arusha.
The EACJ is the instrument for settling disputes among members of the East African Community, which are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. Serengeti Watch is supporting this legal action and is asking for your help as well.
You can donate specifically to this fund here.
The legal case is significant. It seeks to permanently restrain the government of Tanzania from the following:
- “constructing, creating, commissioning or maintaining a trunk road or highway across any part of the Serengeti National Park.”
- “degazetting (removing) any part of the Serengeti National Park for the purpose of upgrading, tarmacking, paving, realigning, constructing, creating or commissioning” the highway.
- removing itself from UNESCO obligations with respect to the Serengeti National Park.
The legal action states that the highway is first and foremost an infringement of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community. It would cause “irreparable and irreversible damage to the environment of the Serengeti National Park and the adjoining and inseparable Maasai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.”
Under the terms of the EAC Treaty, partner states are required to cooperate in the management of shared natural resources, notify each other of activities that are likely to have significant transboundary environmental impacts, and to follow protocols for Environmental Impact Assessment.
Other obligations cited fall under: the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, the United Nations Declaration on the Human Environment, the Stockholm Declaration, and the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources.
The legal action was filed last December by the African Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW), located in Kenya. See the news article: Activists file suit against Serengeti Highway move
Serengeti Watch is supporting the legal fight by providing funding and seeking help from other legal and environmental organizations.
You can help too. This case is important. As in any court battle, there is no guarantee of immediate or even eventual success. But it is worth the fight – this has the potential of not only stopping the highway but of warding off future threats. The next time such a plan is brought forward, there will be an important decision on the books and and legal precedent to follow.
References
Website for the East African Community.
More on the East African Court of Justice can be found here.
Website for the East African Community environmental section
Download document on Transboundary Environmental Assessment for Shared Ecosystems.
Download document on environmental protocols
If we CAN save the Serengeti there is hope for the future of Planet Earth…..
Here we ago again-when will the plundering stop? Why can’t big business keep their greedy hands off the planet. When are you going to wake up,haven’t you learned yet, you cannot upset the balance of nature;re:the rain forest is dissapering-BP-polluted the ocean and killed millions of marine life-pollutors throw plastics into the oceans,there at least 3or4 small islands of plastics floating around the globe, which the sea turtles eat and die, birds eat and die, oh yea, Then we also have Fukisima which has spread radiation all over the world, worst than Chernoybl. Now you want to DESTROY the Serengeti-with all of its meaningful Bird and Animal sanctuaries,migratory routes. WHY,what for?A Highway or some potash, have you lost your minds? To go forward with this plan of yours is Insane!! Every corner of OUR Planet is in Deep trouble and you wish to continue down that road…I ask you,plead with you,STOP and think, LOOK before you leap because This action will affect the earth on so many levels your head will spin. It’s time to take a stand-STOP the Wreckless destruction of the Serengeti!!! Mother Earth has been Raped and Plundered enough, JUST take a look around, WE are in trouble,Please,if you have an ounce of compassion, you would not even consider moving forward, the planet,yours and mine, our home,will never recover, so is your Agenda worth killing off another critical habitat area?!!! Paul A. Panarese STOP THE INSANITY………………
STOP THIS NOW. WE RUINED THE UNITED STATES BY KILLING ALL THE BUFFALO, DON’T LET THIS HAPPEN IN TANZANIA
Having been a park ranger in Yellowstone National Park for over 10 years…I see first hand how roads affect the park….especially with almost one million visitors a month during July and August. America may have created the idea of national parks, but my experience in African national parks has shown me how other countries have perfected it and are doing a better job than the United States…especially in providing for a quiet and real park experience without the crowds. Tanzania, learn from our mistakes. Yes, we decimated huge populations of wildlife in the name of “progress”. I wish we could turn back the clocks, but we cannot. You have something that you cannot put a price on. I hope one day to make it back to Africa and experience the awe of your wildebeest migration; in essennce to even get a glimpse back into time of what my country once had and let slip away.
I particularly agree with Paulpanaese – he has said exactly what I want to say, and that is leave this beautiful, important area alone. Man’s greed will be his downfall. Come on guys – don’t ruin this precious area.
I’m hearing alot of talk of boycotting travel tours to Tanzania or withholding monies that fuel the tour industry there. Has anyone else heard that?
We have occasionally heard talk of this, but we do not support such a move. The travel industry supports tens of thousands of ordinary Tanzanian people and their families, who depend on the income. A boycott would punish them, and perhaps jolt the country enough that it would give up on conserving natural areas, using them for farming and mining instead.
Please do not aid and abet the destruction of this earth, our only home. Greed cannot buy self validation. You have shelter and food what more does one really need? If the earth is destroyed we are destroyed and it is a speeding progression. Tsunamis, earthquakes, valcanoes, teutonic plate shifts become stronger and more frequent. Our air is more toxic as is water – our basic survival. Our droughts increase, our oceans and temperature rise, our food sources are killed off. Every little portion of the rain forest plowed under, burned out, every specie that is killed off, every carbon sink such as the Serengeti, every piece of destruction is a break in the cycle, the symbiosis, the dependency of all life. Every little life is a contributing necessity to all life. Please lets save it and save ourselves.
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