Threat to pink Flamingos puts travel in the red
East Africa’s position as one of the world’s premier eco-tourism destinations is being undermined by plans to build a huge chemical production plant at Lake Natron in northern Tanzania.
Broadcaster Sir David Attenborough and the African Tourism and Travel Association have thrown their weight behind an international campaign to save the lake, home to 75 per cent of the globe’s lesser flamingos, which together have been described as ‘the world’s greatest ornithological spectacle’.
The number of tourists visiting Tanzania is expected to rise from 580,000 in 2004 to one million in 2010, many of them drawn to see the one million lesser flamingos that breed on Lake Natron each year.
It is likely that every one of East Africa’s 1.5 to 2.5 million lesser flamingos – three-quarters of the world’s population - hatched at the site
The construction of a soda ash plant on Lake Natron, which is in the Great Rift Valley, close to the Kenyan border, will seriously harm tourism in Tanzania, Kenya and Ethiopia. Eco-tourism in Tanzania and Kenya is worth US$2 billion annually while tourists visiting Lake Natron alone spend US$500,000 each year.
Sir David, who has written of the stunning spectacle the birds create, said: "Lake Natron’s vast flocks of shimmering pink flamingos are one of the world’s greatest wildlife attractions. These spectacular birds deserve the strongest protection we can offer them. Any threat to their future would not only be an ecological disaster, it would deal a huge blow to tourism in East Africa which helps ensure the survival of the region’s spectacular wildlife and wild places."
Nigel Vere Nicholl, chairman of the African Tourism and Travel Association (ATTA), has backed the call for the Lake Natron project to be scrapped.
He said: "Spectacular flocks of flamingos are one of the major attractions for tourists visiting the Great Rift Valley from all over the world. Given the massive contribution ecotourism makes to the East African economy, it just doesn’t make sense to jeopardise these wonderful birds and this very special and unspoilt place. If this development goes ahead who knows what may happen next."
Multinational company Tata, a firm based in India, together with the Tanzanian government, wants to extract soda ash from the saltwaters of Lake Natron, for the production of glass and dye.
A coal-fired power station, road and rail links and housing for 1,200 construction workers would be built at the site. Experts believe the development would drive lesser flamingos from Lake Natron causing its designation as an internationally important wetland to be withdrawn.
If this happened, other wildlife could also be harmed including the chestnut-banded plover, the fringe-eared oryx and an endemic fish species, and Lake Natron would no longer have any attraction for tourists.
The lake is the most important breeding site in the world for lesser flamingos. Its isolation safeguards the birds from predators and its food-rich waters, and the freshwater close by, create ideal breeding conditions.
The leaders of conservation groups in 23 African countries have signed a petition urging the Tanzanian government to turn down the proposal and they are being backed by many of the world’s leading flamingo experts.
The RSPB is also campaigning vigorously against the development. Chief Executive Graham Wynne, said: “The soda ash proposal is just plain wrong. Places like Lake Natron belong to the people and wildlife of Africa not to multinationals to exploit for their own short-term gain.
"If Lake Natron is developed, East Africa will no longer be such a lure for tourists. But it is the whole of the world that will be the loser. This is a much more than just the loss of a few birds."
Add your support:
To support the campaign to save East Africa’s flamingos, write to or fax the Rt Hon Mark Mwandosya, Minister for Environment, Vice President's Office, PO Box 5380, Dar es Salaam, TANZANIA, fax no. +255 22 2128749. Please copy your letter to
The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, PO Box 9372, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, fax +255 22 2123158