Context:

Meatu district is home than 700 Hadzabe who have maintained their ancient hunting and gathering lifestyle. Hadzabe tribe are indigenous people who are hunter-gatherers, have lived deep alongside Lake Eyasi Basin on swath of semi-arid dry forest of Sungu, Irambandogo and Shushuni villages for hundreds of years(Karatu and Mbulu districts). Beekeeping is cornerstone part of their traditional culture and they have practiced it since time immemorial. They have been keeping bees and considering honey as valuable commodity, not only as their prime food but as traditional rituals and medicine. Beekeeping has been part of the Hadzabe community?s customary system of forest management. This has enabled them to defend the forest against intruders and as well as monitors its? healthiness. Thus, HELP project intends to work with the Hadzabe communities in Meatu and Mbulu District to improve their food and nutrition security, enhance their economic growth and poverty reduction sustainably through supports in imparting them with modern bee keeping and marketing initiatives.


About the Proponent:

AFRIPEDO is non-partisan, Wildlife based and Rural development organization, established on 2015 and its? officially registered as NGO on 20rd September 2018, with Registration No. 00NGO/00009932. Its? founding members come from diverse fields mainly linked to conservation and rural development. Its? members are active in Serengeti Ecosystem and currently Meatu District is the focal area for organization activities but the future plans is to operate all over Tanzania. The organization was established with the prime objective of filling the gaps and to spearheads the conservation efforts as well as enhancing rural development. Organization believe that engaging local communities is key and critical element of effective strategies to tackle ever growing conservation challenges and on attaining long term conservation goals.

AFRIPEDO envisions a nation where all people bordering Protected Areas (National Parks, game reserves, Game Controlled Areas, Open areas, Ngorongoro Conservation Area and Wildlife Management Areas, Forest reserves, Marine parks, Ramsar Sites and Nature Reserves), attain the opportunity to live a better life by conserving wildlife and environment for sustainable development as indicated by literacy, food security, healthy wellbeing, and ability to cope with conserved environment and adaptation to climate change. The mission of AFRIPEDO is to bridge the development gap between environments, wildlife, communities by empowering marginalized rural populations towards the attainment of a standard of better life. AFRIPEDO does this by initiating and implementing pioneering programs and projects which serve as a means to enhance sustainable human, wildlife and environmentally sustainable development from within and also providing tailor made consulting and training services to other organizations and individuals who work for the same purpose.

Currently, much of the AFRIPEDO work was been focus exclusively on assisting Hadzabe communities living around Lake Eyasi Basin mainly at; Sungu, Shushuni, Irambandogo villages at Meatu, Mangola village at Karatu, Mangola and Yeada Chini villages Mbulu District.


Project?s Primary Objective:

To improve food and nutrition security in Hadzabe communities through supporting on modern bee keeping and marketing, honey production from the currently 15% to 75% and environmental protection techniques to protect 2000 hectares of Natural forests by May 2022