Partners of Mazingira Alliance for Community and Conservation (MACCO
MACCO works in connection with several national and local governmental and non-governmental agencies. Among the latter a long-term and tight collaboration has been established with STEP, both on the side of biodiversity research and monitoring (e.g., monitoring of the Kilombero Elephant Corridor, impact of protection on wildlife in Udzungwa Scarp Nature Forest Reserve), and for protected area support and community-based conservation. A critical collaboration in this context is the alliance that since 2022 has led to develop the Udzungwa Landscape Strategy, whereby STEP and MACCO will be the key local implementing agencies
The main activities are the following:
- To disseminate agro-forestry techniques as an alternative to forest resource collection
- To implement programmes of environmental education in primary and secondary schools, teacher training and sensitization of local communities
- To facilitate eco-tourism visits in and around the park, including supporting the development of the Visitor Information Centre, and promote local income-generating activities such as beekeeping, animal husbandry, tourist lodging facilities and handcraft.
- To facilitate the adoption of energy-efficient technologies that save the consumption of natural resources (e.g., mud stoves, efficient cookers, recycled biomass briquette, heat-retention baskets, solar energy, and any other form of renewable and efficient energy)
- To implement biodiversity monitoring in the National Park and adjacent Nature Reserves to assess biodiversity status and trends in the face of rapid climatic and other anthropogenic changes
- To contribute the inventory of biodiversity, both fauna and flora, and its variation in space and time
- To disseminate the results of the monitoring and research projects.