Tanzania's Selous Game Reserve: Paradise at risk

The Selous Game Reserve is one of the Earth’s largest nature reserves and the biggest in Africa. It covers 50,000 square kilometers (31,000 miles) of steppes and savannah over several regions of southeast Tanzania. The park is home to hippos, elephants, giraffes, buffalo, lions, crocodiles, cheetahs, antelopes and more than 400 bird species.

The wildlife reserve was created by the German colonial power in 1896. After taking over the colony, Great Britain amplified the reserve and named it after Frederick Selous, an English officer and big game hunter. He was killed in World War 1 and buried in the park. In 1982, UNESCO declared the reserve a World Natural Heritage due to its unique fauna and flora.

UNESCO and several conservancy organizations consider the unique ecosystem in Selous to be at serious risk. Three years ago, the reserve was placed on the "red list" of threatened World Heritage sites. Despite protests by the Tanzanian government, UNESCO recently decided to keep it on the list.

The Rufiji River is a lifeline of the reserve. It crosses Selous for 600 kilometers (370 miles) and flows into the Indian Ocean south of Dar es Salam. Recently. President John Magufuli announced that he would build a dam that has been in the planning for decades "as soon as possible". Electricity is scarce in Tanzania and the president wants the Rufiji River to generate power.

"That would be a terrible blow for nature," said the nature conservation organization World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Plans for the dam include a wall 130 meters (142 yards) high and 700 meters (766 yards) long in the so-called 'Stiegler Canyon.' It will create a lake of more than 1,000 square kilometers (621 square miles), flooding an area larger than Berlin.

Erecting the dam implies building roads, industrial plants and residences for workers in the game reserve. The WWF fears "the destruction of pristine wilderness and one of the most important habitats for endangered species." Plans for the construction of the dam are likely to turn into a headache for the German government too.

A day before Magufuli’s announcement that the dam would be built soon, his government and the German ambassador in Tanzania signed the "Selous Conservation and Development Program", Secad for short. It is meant to protect and conserve the park as a UNESCO World Natural Heritage. Germany paid 18 million euros for the project.

Criticism is also being aimed at concessions by Tanzania’s government for the exploitation of oil and gas reserves, and one uranium mine at the southern end of Selous. Radioactive material is to be extracted on the headwaters of the Rufiji. The first holes have already been drilled. The WWF has warned that this could contaminate the river and reach the groundwater.

The Tanzanian government rejects all criticism and points to its success in fighting poaching instead. It is true that the number of elephants in Selous has increased somewhat. There used to be more than 100,000. But poaching and contraband of ivory reached such a scale that between 1982 and 2014, nearly 90 percent of the elephants were lost.

Commercial game hunting is allowed in Selous. It is a source of revenue for the reserve and most of the 1.2 million people who live at the edge of the park. In some areas in the north no hunting is allowed. The areas can however be visited by tourists on a safari. But there are significantly less visitors than to Serengeti National Park, although the Selous Game Reserve is three times as large.