Wildebeest Migration Routes Threatened by Major Commercial Highway

The Government of Tanzania is planning a major commercial highway across the Serengeti National Park, linking the Lake Victoria area with eastern Tanzania, severing the important migration route for Wildebeest between the Serengeti and Masai Mara. It is concerned that the road will negatively affect biodiversity through increased road kills of large mammals and attendant scavengers, including vultures, which are facing extreme pressure outside Protected Areas. The Serengeti is thought to hold up to a third of the remaining populations of Ruppell’s vulture, a species that has seen recent massive declines in West Africa.

 Of course the Tanzanian people have the right to expand their economy and increase their standards of living but pressure must be put on the Tanzanian government to undertake a full ecological impact assessment and consider the alternative routes to the south of the park.


You can support the RSPB campaign by writing a letter to Hon. Ms. Shamsa Salekea Mwangunga (MP) Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, here:
http://www.rspb.org.uk/supporting/campaigns/campaignwithus/current/serengeti.asp

or sign up online here:

http://www.savetheserengeti.org/#axzz0x3imOsDa

Jim

Anna Benbow-come on UP!

This Tea Party just keeps getting better. Now Jim and Wayne are joined by the lovely and talented Miss Anna Benbow (applause!). Its been Anna's dream to climb Kilimanjaro for as long as she can remember, and this target has been on her To Do List for about the same length of time. "At the start of 2010 I added a couple of things that had been on my hyperthetical 'to do' list for years," writes Anna. " I just wanted to liven up the day to day stuff. Not worked out too badly so far."

When Anna isn't doodling on her blackboard she is a camera person working as a focus puller (as strange as it sounds) on film & TV productions. Anna and I share the great honour of being non-god god parents to Fraser and Sophie Amis of the Bury St Edmunds Amis-Rollinson clan.

She is also the greatest cook in the world.



Welcome aboard the Kilimanjaro Express Anna!