About the Mpingo Conservation Project

Our Aims

We believe that mpingo offers a unique opportunity for integrated conservation and rural development across large areas of its native habitat in Tanzania and Mozambique. Our aim is to use mpingo as an economic tool to advance conservation of mpingo’s natural habitat: miombo woodland. In particular we seek to achieve this through promoting sustainable and socially equitable exploitation of this natural resource. Conservation of the natural habitat will be achieved by ensuring that local people living in mpingo harvesting areas receive a fair share of the worth of mpingo, thus providing them an incentive to manage the habitat in an environmentally friendly manner.

The Project

The project was founded in 1995, originally under the name of the Cambridge Mpingo Project, and began with the Tanzanian Mpingo 96 student expedition. In total, between 1996 and 2003 the project organised six student research expeditions to Tanzania, involving 56 students from eight different universities. The project was transformed when in 2004 we won the top prize in the BP Conservation Awards Programme. This allowed the project to set up a permanent field base in Kilwa, Tanzania, and to complement its ongoing research programme with practical, community-based conservation. In 2005 the project celebrated its tenth birthday. See the Project Timeline for a detailed history of our work.

The project is officially registered as an NGO in Tanzania (Certificate of Compliance no. 1739), and has partnered with the Environment Africa Trust for fund-raising in the UK. (The Environment Africa Trust is a UK registered charity no. 1025443.) In Tanzania, the project is controlled by the founding members of the NGO, while affairs in the UK are overseen by an independent board of trustees. Day-to-day activities are managed by the five-member executive.

The project works with a number of different partner organisations in Tanzania and internationally >>
And we are supported by a number of much-appreciated sponsors >>
Contact details are here >>