In a recent decision handed down, the Appeals Division of the Arusha-based East African Court of Justice upheld three of four points from the ruling of the lower court in regard to a permanent injunct
In a recent decision handed down, the Appeals Division of the Arusha-based East African Court of Justice upheld three of four points from the ruling of the lower court in regard to a permanent injunction sought by the African Network for Animal Welfare, in short ANEW, on behalf of the Tanzanian, East African, and global conservation community.
This ruling is seen as a massive setback for the Tanzanian government which had suggested that the court had no jurisdiction over the matter as the country had not formally signed the protocol on covering environmental matters. This was seen, both in public and by the Appeals Court, as literally a lame excuse trying to weasel out of Tanzania’s commitment made when accepting the protocol provisions in the first place. With the June 2014 decision now by and large standing, Tanzania will find it next to impossible to build a paved highway across the Serengeti’s most vulnerable migration routes, either paved or un-paved. Bolstered by the success, it is expected that any such attempts will meet with yet more legal challenges, and Tanzania, already rattled and shamed by the full scale of the elephant slaughter under the present regime becoming public knowledge, may not find any high ground to defend a road project which is bound to decimate the great herds of wildebeest and zebras, too.