232 SCIENCE IN AFRICA 



In 1934, there was created in Brussels an institution called La 

 Fondation pourfavoriser Vl^tude scientijique des Pares Nationaux du Co?igo 

 Beige. This scientific foundation has an annual income of about 

 250,000 francs, and its object is 'to promote all colonial scientific 

 researches, and especially those in the Pare National Albert, or in 

 other national parks'. Scientists of all nationalities are welcomed, 

 and to make the possibilities of study more attractive a laboratory 

 is being built, with library and museum attached, on the Ruchuru 

 River in the geographic centre of the park. 



In British EastAfriea, the elevation of certain of the existing game 

 reserves to national park status is often urged, but no government 

 has yet been willing to allocate to animals for ail time large stretches 

 of territory which might in the future be urgendy required for 

 other purposes. Moreover, there are special problems aflfecting 

 certain areas, such as the grazing rights of the Masai tribe over large 

 tracts of country which are the most suitable for game conserva- 

 tion. The financial aspect of establishing a national park depends 

 upon the revenue which may be expected from tourist traffic. The 

 Kruger Park owes its success to the ever-increasing support of a 

 local white population. Visitors from overseas do not contribute a 

 large proportion because climate restricts the open season to 

 months coinciding with the European summer. In the East 

 African colonies, with their smaller local white population, sup- 

 port must depend largely on overseas tourists, and it is unlikely 

 that they will provide an important source of revenue in the near 

 future. Major Kingston (1930) has proposed a scheme for the 

 creation of nine national parks in East Africa: two in Nyasaland, 

 three in Tanganyika, two in Kenya and two in Uganda. Among 

 these the Serengeti Plains to the south-east of Lake Victoria, with 

 a focus to the east in the wonderful Ngorongoro crater, offer the 

 best opportunities for tourist development on the lines of the 

 Kruger Park. 



Access to this region is becoming easier every year, by air and 

 by road from Nairobi or Musoma on Lake Victoria, and. some 

 definite policy with regard to its future would seem desirable. 

 Major Kingston (1930) gave full details on the proposed conver- 

 sion of this area into a national park, and the question was dis- 

 cussed after a paper by him to the Royal Geographical Society 



