To the Editor:
Re “Proposed Serengeti Highway Is Lined With Prospects and Fears” (news article, Oct. 31):
I first visited the Serengeti in 1997, and it remains one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. The national park where we can visit the most diverse group of animals in their natural habitat, it is home to the rhino, cheetah, elephant, leopard, hippo, cape buffalo, lion, gazelle and crocodile. I was fortunate enough to see a cheetah attack a Thompson’s gazelle, and serve lunch to her four hungry cubs.
Building a road through this wondrous kingdom would be a monstrous crime. Poaching would increase, and the precarious balance of predator and prey would be destroyed beyond repair.
I saw poverty in Tanzania. But endangering its wildlife would be utterly self-defeating, since tourism represents much of Tanzania’s income. A way must be found to stimulate the country’s economy that does not condemn one of our planet’s greatest wonders.
The world’s nations must assist Tanzania (through the World Bank, perhaps), to enable this magnificent treasure to continue to thrive.
Allen Roth
New York, Oct. 31, 2010
Note from KBJ: Do treasures thrive?
Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D. 