Strategic environmental assessment for Tanzania national parks (TANAPA)

There are a number of development activities/projects proposed to be undertaken in Serengeti National Park (SENAPA). While each development activity/project may have its own EIA, the overall picture and cumulative impacts of a set of development projects may not be known until it is too late. SEA of TANAPA using SENAPA General Management Plan (GMP) and Tourism Development was carried out as a solution to the above stated problem. Specifically the study involved review of the SENAPA GMP, description of the environmental baseline situation of SENAPA, identification of the planned park's and tourism development activities/projects, prediction and evaluation of key impacts and finally suggesting mitigations and enhancement measures for the identified impacts of planned activities/development projects in SENAPA GMP and Tourism Development Program. The results from the study indicated that there are significant impacts, risks and hazards associated with the implementation of the planned development projects. There is also an inadequacy in the current SENAPA GMP and Tourism Development Program such that it does no adequately address environmental impacts prediction and evaluation of different proposed development activities/projects to be undertaken in the park. The study has concluded that there are strong grounds for using SEA process in integrating environmental issues in GMP and Tourism Development Program. Moreover, the study recommends that: there is a need for mainstreaming environment into GMP of all Tanzania's parks via SEA; There is a need of studying the consequences of economically and politically motivated decisions that encourage tourism and private sector development on Tanzania's parks environment.