A legal case was filed in December, 2010, in the East African Court of Justice (EACJ) by the Africa Network for Animal Welfare (ANAW), a Kenyan nonprofit organization. It challenged the Tanzanian government’s right to build a highway across the Serengeti National Park.
This case is significant in its own right, as it could stop future plans to build a commercial corridor (which might include a railway!) through the Serengeti ecosystem.
But the case is also significant for several other reasons:
•It was initiated completely by a local East African conservation organization, not a foreign NGO, government, or UN body.
•It operates within the legal framework of an East African court system designed expressly to deal with such issues.
•It is a test of the power and jurisdiction of the EACJ to decide on transboundary issues within East Africa, especially those relating to conservation.
More about the Case
According to ANAW’s Director, Josphat Ngonyo (right), the highway would be an infringement of the Treaty for the Establishment of the East African Community and would cause “irreparable and irreversible damage to the environment of the Serengeti National Park and the adjoining and inseparable Masai Mara Game Reserve in Kenya.”
Last year, the government of Tanzania attempted to have the case thrown out. But on March 15 the East Africa Court of Justice Appellate Division dismissed all objections raised by the Tanzanian Attorney General and ruled that the regional Court did indeed have jurisdiction to determine such environmental disputes in the region. Both sides will now prepare for a full trial. The date is yet to be determined.
The suit seeks to permanently restrain the government of Tanzania from:
“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.
……or removing itself from UNESCO obligations with respect to the Serengeti National Park.
Other obligations of the Tanzanian government cited in the case 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 East Africa Court of Justice is the instrument for settling disputes among members of the East African Community, which are Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. 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.
www.savetheserengeti.org
