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’Serengeti’s continued survival is uncertain’
2006-03-28 09:41:13
By Adam Ihucha in Serengeti
The survival of the largest national park in the country, Serengeti National Park (SENAPA), is becoming uncertain as a result of the growing threats confronting its bio-diversity.
The Chief Park Warden, Justin Hando, said the threats were basically anthropogenically-induced because of increased human activities on core areas such as wildlife migratory routes and corridors as well as dispersal areas.
Hando said since there was no wildlife protected area throughout the world, which is a self—contained ecological unit, the core areas, which link SENAPA with other wildlife protected areas and habitats should remain intact for it to maintain its reputation as an important biodiversity hot spot.
’But unfortunately enough, the Serengeti ecosystem has been hit by an increased human pressure such as cultivation, poaching and settlements that are not compatible with conservation interest,’ he told the Parliamentary Committee on Natural Resources recently.
The SENAPA boss said at the moment almost 90 per cent of the vital corridors and migratory routes at each side of the park have been blocked by human settlements.
The consequences of this, Hando said, is putting the park at risk of becoming isolated as an ecological island.
’The probable ecological implications of the trends around the park and the entire ecosystem are the declination of wildlife populations, genetic erosion and extinction of species,’ Hando revealed.
He also decried poachers whom he said kill between 20,000 and 30,000 wildlife annually.
The conservationist therefore said that if immediate measures are not taken in order to rescue the park, it would be only a short time before the tourism in the northern circuit is hurt.
’It is high time the government intervened in order to save our prestigious park,’ he said.
The Tanzania’s first and most famous park, the Serengeti, is located about 335 km north-west of Arusha City and stretches north to Kenya and borders Lake Victoria.
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