Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve faces calls to be stripped of World Heritage Site status due to dam damage
Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve faces calls to be stripped of World Heritage
Site status due to dam damage
Zaina Alibhai, iNews
July 14, 2021
See link
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/tanazania-selous-game-reserve-stripped-world-heritage-site-status-damage-dam-1101215
for photos.
Environmentalists are calling for Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve to be
stripped of its status as a World Heritage Site because it is damaging
wildlife habitats.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) says the construction of the
controversial Rufiji hydropower dam has caused irreversible damage to
wildlife, and will continue to do so upon completion.
The dam became controversial after plans revealed the project was set to
flood an 125,000-hectare area within the reserve in November.
Construction has already seen industrial complexes erected in the heart of
the wilderness, diverting the Rufiji River from its natural riverbed, the
EIA says.
The loss of habitat will threaten endangered black rhinos and elephants who
already face threat from poachers and traffickers.
Newly built roads are also reportedly providing poachers easy access around
the reserve.
An EIA report read: “The disastrous impact of the dam’s construction will
stretch far beyond the dam and its reservoir and will undermine the high
density and diversity of species which makes the Selous Game Reserve an
area of outstanding importance for in-situ conservation of biological
diversity.”
The Selous Game Reserve has been inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage
list since 1982, a precarious position due to its recent links with
poaching and deforestation.
Environmentalists argue heavy equipment, explosives and cement used as part
of the Rufiji Hydropower project threatens the reserves inclusion in the
list. The EIA is hoping the World Heritage Committee chooses to delist the
reserve in its meeting on Friday.
Shruti Suresh, deputy campaign leader at EIA, said: “The reasons for
designating the site as World Heritage are effectively gone, thanks to the
Rufiji hydropower project, which contravenes international legal frameworks
and will only continue to rip apart one of Africa’s largest remaining
wilderness areas.”
The Tanzanian government has been called upon to respond to requests from
the committee to allow an assessment of the damage caused by the project.
“Multiple requests for the project to be halted have been ignored by the
Tanzanian government, which has instead responded by accelerating the
construction of the dam, introducing security patrols at the site and
threatening any opposition with jail time,” Ms Suresh said.
The Unesco World Heritage Centre last month published recommendations for
the reserve to be delisted in June following a number of warnings.
It noted Selous Game Reserve’s elephant populations have “unexpectedly not
started recovering, strongly indicating that poaching has likely remained a
problem”. The black rhino population, estimated at more than 2,000, is
“likely to be extinct or no longer viable”.
It added if there were any of the animals remaining, it is likely they
would have only survived in the dense woodlands, including those which will
be flooded by the dam.
Ms Suresh said: “It’s appalling that this has happened on the Tanzania
government’s watch and at its direct instigation – the World Heritage
Committee needs to send a clear and unambiguous message to the world that
the wilful destruction of such a special environment is totally
unacceptable.”
Only two sites have been delisted in the history of Unesco – the Arabian
Oryx Sanctuary in Oman in 2007, due to oil and gas exploration, and the
Dresden Elbe Valley in Germany in 2009, after a bridge was built across the
site. If the Selous Game Reserve follows suit, it will be the first site in
Africa to be stripped of its status.