The Matheniko Communities Bee Keeping and Conservation Project works within the Mountain Moroto ecosystem found in the semi-Arid belt of North Eastern Uganda neighbouring Kenya, Sudan. It is near Matheniko Game Reserve. Three ethnic groups namely; the Tepeth, Matheniko and the Turkana who derive subsistence from within the area are enclosed by the Mt. Moroto forest reserve. In order to sustain their livelihoods, these indigenous people resort to environmentally destructive activities such as charcoal burning, tree felling for firewood and utilisation of forest based resources, wild honey collection normally done by cutting down Junperus procera (tropical true cedar tree that yet the tree makes Mountain Moroto area a key conservation area. Junperus procera is preferred by bees to make colonies and it?s bark used for making traditional beehives. Un controlled fires caused by poor honey harvesting methods (smoking) and over grazing threatened the fragile ecosystem of Moroto forest and game reserve hence the need to promote sustainable conservation of Mountain Moroto forest reserve and further diversify the diversify the options of indigenous groups for income generation.

The project is managed by Matheniko Development Forum, a local CBO in the in the area. The GEF focal area addressed is Biodiversity conservation and mitigation against land degradation.

The indigenous community surrounding Mountains Moroto Forest reserve is composed of mainly agro pastoralists and is actively involved in the promotion of the project activities especially in the sustainable conservation of natural resources and Bee keeping to generate income and improve on their livelihoods and more so to avoid the destruction of the Mountain Moroto ecosystem.