Government and big business try to build a massive industrial project in a protected space. Wildlife defenders rise up to save the threatened reserve. This starkly drawn plot line sounds like the simplistic basis of a hundred Disney films, but in this case the drama is playing out for real in Tanzania. The government of Tanzania would like to build a highway that connects the commercial activity on the country's coastal eastern side to the inland and more remote west. That highway, however, would cut right through the plains of Serengeti National Park, and right through the annual migratory path of the millions of gazelles, zebras, and wildebeests that head from Tanzania to Kenya and provide a gorgeous visual staple for nature films. Groups like the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Zoological Society of London have raised their voices to oppose the project.
James Deutsch, executive director of WCS's Africa ...
