Matukio : Controversy Over Serengeti International Airport Divide Tanzania

By ADAM IHUCHA --There is a proposed airport in western Tanzania that has divided the country.

While the airfield has not yet been built, it nonetheless exists, either as a great opportunity or an apocalyptic threat.

If constructed, the new airfield, located in Mugumu vicinity, 40 km northwestern Serengeti, a Tanzania’s flagship national park, would be facilitating direct landing of larger aircraft near the park to offer holidaymakers hassle-free trips.

The sprawling Serengeti is famous for its spectacular annual migration of over 1.5 million white bearded wildebeest and 250,000 zebra, and for its numerous Nile crocodile.

But the proposed $350 million ultra-modern airport to be financed by an American billionaire with multi-million-dollar investments in western Serengeti, Mr Paul Tudor Jones, is not absolutely without controversy.

Mr Tudor, a prominent Wall Street tycoon, runs a $16 million five-star lodge at Sasakwa Hill and the three wildlife rich hunting blocs of Grumeti, Ikorongo and Ikoma, covering nearly 110,000 hectares in western Serengeti.

Whereas National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) approved the plan, the state says the airdrome, would forever change the greatest wildlife migration on earth.

Late October, 2014, NEMC granted the Serengeti district an Environmental Impact Assessment Certificate (EIAC) apparently after being satisfied that the construction of the airfield would not compromise the environment.

In his reaction, Natural Resources and Tourism minister Lazaro Nyalandu, apparently in his after thought, vowed that no plane would, under his watch, be allowed to fly over Serengeti national park, the UNESCO World Heritage site.

“They can build the airport, but we are not going to let the planes fly over Serengeti national park because their noises during landing and takeoff will interrupt the wildlife serenity,” Mr Nyalandu says.

He argued that wild animals were sensitive creatures, which, if disturbed, would move away from Serengeti without notice. And when that happens, the lifelong conservation efforts would be worthless.

“Conservation outweighs other interests because even the investments and tourists are drawn by flora and fauna available in Serengeti, otherwise no one would be interested,” Mr Nyalandu argued.

Singita Grumeti Reserve, Managing Director and representative of mogul Tudor, Mr Graham Ledger, says the air access to northern Serengeti region will be a direct benefit to tourism and community development in the area.

“Singita is aware that the EI has been granted for Mugumu Airport. This represents a step forward in the development of air access to the northern Serengeti region and will be a direct benefit to tourism and community development in the area” Mr. Ledger says in a statement.

Serengeti District executive director Goody Pamba said the construction phase would commence in a month’s period, as experts were putting final touches on the long overdue project. 

“The project design is in final touches and hopefully after a month the construction works will take off,” she said.

She hopes that the airport will stimulate economy as the facility is expected to open up more investment prospects in areas of tourism, hence help to create a number of opportunities in Mugumu town, Serengeti district and the Mara region as a whole.

Serengeti Member of Parliament, who is also a deputy minister for health and social welfare, Dr. Stephen Kebwe achoed Ms Pamba’s sentiments, saying he was pushing the construction to start as soon as possible.

“I can assure you that the foundation stone for the airport project would be laid soon,” Dr. Kebwe explained.

Aviation analysts say that the airport, if erected will pose serious competition to other major airports, namely Kilimanjaro international airport, Arusha and Mwanza airfields, which currently are handling traffic en-route to Serengeti national park.

Indeed, the Serengeti airport would make life easier for tourists, who currently travel 300 kilometers by road from KIA to the famous game sanctuary.

“I am of the opinion that we better upgrading Mwanza airport at the desirable international standards to handle the high-end tourists who want to sample Serengeti attraction rather than to build close to the park” says Tanzania Association of Tour Operators Chief Executive Officer, Sirili Akko.

 According to him the airport will attract unnecessary human activities near the already overwhelmed fragile Serengeti-Mara ecosystem.

Opponents of the project say the landing and takeoff of large planes in Mugumu, which borders one of the park’s most congested areas, both in terms of humans and wildlife, could in the long run damage wildlife migration patterns.

This area is critical to the wildebeest’s annual migration between Tanzania and Kenya’s Masai Mara Reserve.

Nine years ago, conservationists, in collaboration with Serengeti National Park officials, drew up a 10-year comprehensive general management plan (GMP) for Serengeti.

The plan prohibits expansion of human settlement and development in the wider ecosystem of Serengeti-Mara. It notes the extreme impact in the northwest border of the legendary Serengeti, which was densely settled by a population of 3,329,199 in 2011.

The population increase has been fuelling poaching, with Director General of Tanzania National Parks Allan Kijazi putting at between 200 and 300 the number of wildebeest killed annually in western Serengeti.

A UNEP and World Conservation Monitoring Centre report puts the total number of animals killed annually in Serengeti at as high as 200,000.

The Serengeti Watch organisation says a facility like the airport will require machinery, road infrastructure, jet fuel, and a steady stream of equipment, spares, and supplies to support it.

In its “Stop Serengeti International Airport” online campaign, the organisation says jumbo jets landing near the park would change the Serengeti “beyond recognition.”