Some big news from Tanzania: Plans to build a road across the Serengeti in northern Tanzania have been scuttled by the government. According to the BBC, the two-lane highway would have connected Lake Victoria with coastal ports of the country.
"According to scientists," says author Jeremy Hance of MongaBay.com, an environmental website, "the road would have severed the migration route of 1.5 million wildebeest and a half million other antelope and zebra, in turn impacting the entire ecosystem of the Serengeti plains."
The BBC says that the Tanzanian government has confirmed the road across the park will remain gravel. In a letter sent to the World Heritage Centre in Paris, the Department of Natural Resources and Tourism 30-mile section of road across the park will "continue to be managed mainly for tourism and administrative purposes, as it is now".
The government is considering an alternative route for a major trade highway that would run to the south of the park.
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