Wild Survivors

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Wild Survivors

Promoting human-elephant coexistence in East Africa using sustainable initiatives and wildlife tech, powered by communities! Elephants are at the heart of this.

Join us to protect wildlife, people and ecosystems! Wild Survivors is a small organisation, with huge ambitions. Did you know, one elephant is killed every 15 minutes across Africa? If action against the ivory trade is not taken, and communities are not empowered as advocates for these magnificent creatures, they could be extinct by 2025. They are mercilessly hunted every day for their tusks, to f

eed the greed of others. Large ivory markets in China, Japan, and the United States fuel a constant demand for this horrific market. But there's a silent killer of these megafauna: Human-Elephant Conflict. We focus our work on creating harmony between wildlife and rural communities. Daily crop raids by migrating elephants is devastating for farming communities in Tanzania who rely solely on their crops for income. In retaliation to losing their crops, elephants are attacked, or killed, often through poisoning to prevent farm raids. Humans and elephants are dying when they don't need to. We have a working, low-tech solution to his historic problem: Bees! Elephants are scared of bees, and will avoid them at all costs. Working with villagers, we help to install beehive fences around the front perimeter of farms along roaming routes. Elephants will not cross the fence when they disturb it and realise bees are present. This is a method based on the successful work by Dr Lucy King, in Kenya. We have replicated Dr. King's technique, and with her expert guidance, are rolling the beehive fences out to communities in desperate need, along the border of Tarangire National Park. Farmers learn a new skill in beekeeping, which also provides a sustainable livelihood through the harvesting and sales of organic, raw honey. Education is paramount. Villagers can learn about the importance of elephants to their ecosystem and local economy with tourism. Elephants are saved from attack, with crucial migration corridors preserved, and farmer's crops protected. Bees pollinate crops and act as a natural deterrent to the elephants. It's a win-win solution! Find out more, and to sponsor a beehive, or a farmer's beekeeping training visit:
www.wildsurvivors.org
www.wildsurvivors.org/donate

17/07/2026

We are beyond excited to share that Wild Survivors Tanzania has been selected as a Top 3 Finalist in the Wilderness Impact Challenge 2026! 💚🐘

Our Women’s Enterprise & Empowerment Hubs are now in the running to receive USD $100,000 to help scale community-owned conservation economies across the Serengeti.

We believe healthy ecosystems and resilient local economies grow together. The same care that nurtures healthy farms can also nurture healthy ecosystems. By strengthening women’s leadership and community-owned conservation economies, we’re helping create safer, fairer farming livelihoods while supporting communities as the long-term stewards of landscapes where both people and elephants can thrive.

This recognition belongs to every woman beekeeper, farmer, community partner, supporter and team member who has made this possible.

A huge thank you to Wilderness for recognising our work, we’re excited for what’s next! 💚

Read more about the impact challenge via the link in bio!

01/07/2026

🎉 We’re live! We’re so excited to announce that Wild Survivors has been selected to take part in the Ma Earth Community Funding Campaign, running July 1-21.

Together, we’re raising $5,000 to equip five women’s groups with beekeeping and permaculture resources, enterprise and financial literacy training, and support to develop high-quality honey, beeswax, and organic produce for sustainable local and tourism markets.

The women’s groups are actively preserving elephant corridors, strengthening biodiversity protection, and building resilient livelihoods through our Community-Led Coexistence Corridors project.

Here’s where your support becomes even more powerful. 💚

Ma Earth uses quadratic funding, meaning the campaign rewards the number of individual supporters, not simply the size of donations. Every contribution - whether it’s $10, $15, or more, helps unlock a greater share of matching funds from Ma Earth’s global pool of philanthropic donors.

In other words, every donor matters. A small gift can have an even bigger impact when more people join the campaign.

If you’ve followed our journey or believe in the power of communities to lead conservation, we’d be so grateful for your support. 💚

👉 Visit the link in our bio to donate and learn more.

And if you’re unable to donate today, sharing this campaign with your friends, family, and networks is one of the biggest ways you can help us unlock more funding.

Conservation is strongest when communities have the opportunity to lead it. Thank you for helping make that possible. 💚

15/06/2026

A weekend of learning, connection and collaboration at Youth4Nature Conference! 🌍🐘🐝

Masaka, John and Fran joined passionate organisations, young researchers and conservationists from across Tanzania to connect, exchange ideas and grow together through conversations on community conservation, human–wildlife conflict, storytelling, leadership and data.

A highlight was sharing our Coexistence in Action Framework, with Masaka presenting The Story of Bees and Elephants 🐝🐘 exploring the challenges, achievements and critical considerations behind beehive fences, the importance of community ownership and value chains, and insights into elephant behaviour captured through our remote camera monitoring.

We’re leaving the weekend feeling energised and optimistic, inspired by the passion and ideas driving the next generation of conservation leaders! 💚

12/05/2026

From the apiary to handmade products 🐝✨

This week, Esther delivered practical training with the Kizi women’s group in the Rukwa–Katavi Ecosystem, combining beekeeping skills with the production of value-added products including beeswax body butter, honey soap, and lip balms.

While the bee colonies are still establishing and not yet ready for honey harvests, the women are already building enterprise skills and creating products using locally sourced beeswax, opening up new income opportunities linked to their apiaries.

The body butter is especially popular, with women sharing how effective it is for dry skin and common skin ailments. The training also sparked strong interest from the Nkasi District Community Development Officer, who pledged support to help connect the group to exhibitions including Nane Nane and Saba Saba.

In landscapes where crop loss, climate pressures, and human-elephant conflict place huge strain on rural families, particularly women, these initiatives help strengthen resilience, diversify livelihoods, and create long-term incentives for protecting bees, biodiversity, and elephant landscapes.

Scroll to the end to join the Fipa celebrations! 🎉🔉
Women leading coexistence in action! 🌿🐘

27/04/2026

🌿 Career Opportunity! Wild Survivors Tanzania is looking for a proactive and grounded Programmes Manager to join our team!

In this role, you’ll help drive and coordinate our work across Ngorongoro, Serengeti, and Rukwa–Katavi, supporting practical approaches to human–elephant coexistence, community livelihoods, and the local stewardship of elephant corridors.

As our Programmes Manager, you will:
🌱 Oversee programme delivery across multiple landscapes, ensuring activities are well coordinated and effectively implemented
🙏 Manage and guide field teams, providing clear direction and day-to-day oversight
✨ Coordinate work across sites, maintaining consistency while adapting to local contexts
✅ Anticipate and address operational challenges, enabling practical, field-based solutions
🧠 Contribute to programme development, bringing initiative, ideas, and field insight to strengthen how work evolves over time
⚡️ Demonstrate problem-solving leadership, identifying challenges early and driving practical improvements in delivery

If you’re a conservation or development professional in Tanzania with experience coordinating programmes and working with communities, we’d love to hear from you!

📍 Arusha-based + field travel
Submit your application by 18th May 2026

👉 Link in bio to apply

23/04/2026

Earth Day continues (every day)! 🌍

We’re so excited to launch our matched funding campaign with through the Earth Raise!

Over the 7 days, every donation is doubled.

This funding will mean we can increase our response to conflict hotspots across the Rukwa–Katavi Ecosystem in Tanzania: scaling community-led human–elephant coexistence, strengthening women’s beekeeping enterprises, and building sustainable value chains that support both people and wildlife.

It’s a simple but very powerful opportunity:
double your impact at a critical moment for this interconnected landscape.

🔗 Donate via link in bio! 🐝🐝🐝

Thank you to everyone supporting this campaign, and to those helping us build long-term, community-led solutions.

📷:

08/03/2026

Coexistence with elephants doesn’t begin with technology or fences…
It begins with the women whose farms and families are part of these landscapes every day.

This International Women’s Day, we celebrate the women across Tanzania who are helping shape a future where people and elephants can nurture the landscapes they share together.

Along the Serengeti boundary, women farmers face the dangerous reality of guarding their farms from determined bull elephants each night. Through their unity and support for one another, they have come together to lead the solutions; managing beehive fences, cultivating coexistence gardens, and sharing knowledge with neighbouring communities about how to farm more safely alongside wildlife.

These stories reached the Rukwa–Katavi ecosystem, where a network of women’s groups have now begun their own beekeeping enterprises that strengthen livelihoods while helping protect the forests and corridors elephants depend on.

We are especially proud of Esther, our Beekeeping & Livelihoods Officer, whose dedication and passion supports women across these landscapes as they build skills, confidence and enterprises of their own. Her leadership continues to strengthen the women’s groups at the heart of this work ❤️

Thank you to the women walking this path with us, and to women everywhere leading change through courage, compassion and resilience! 🐘🌱✨

.eco

15/12/2025

We recently travelled to Nairobi and Tsavo with Save the Elephants, for an inspiring three days completing their HEC Toolkot ToT course!

We spent time with farmers, conservation teams and community groups who live with human–elephant conflict every single day. Hearing farmers talk about how beehive fences now protect their crops, how chilli fences mean they can finally sleep at night, or how sunflower fields no longer attract elephants has really stayed with us and strengthened our own HEC methodologies.
It was a reminder that coexistence is not just theory, it is something people are living and working on, every day.

We walked through farms, climbed watchtowers, visited honey processing hubs, and listened to honest stories of loss, resilience and hope. Seeing these various tools in action deepened our knowledge and experience. But more than the tools, it was the people that really stood out to us - the patience, teamwork and determination it takes to keep these solutions going over time.

We’re heading home inspired and motivated. We also made new connections and friendships with people like Prince Zhuwakinyu () and Sam from .conservation in , and teams from in and the Mt. Elgon Elephant Project in Kenya. Being together reminded us why this work matters, as a collaborative effort - protecting rural livelihoods, while making space for elephants to move safely across shared landscapes.

A huge thank you to and the communities for the warmth, openness and knowledge they shared with us. Asanteni sana!

~ Owen Oliver, HEC Coordinator, Wild Survivors Tanzania

08/12/2025

Last week our team joined the 15th Scientific Conference in , with Owen and Masaka welcoming many researchers, government partners and organisations to the booth!

We had many energising conversations and interesting questions about:
🐝 what really makes beehive fences effective
🐘 how we measure elephant incursions and conflict
🌱 women-led enterprise models
📷 new technology like camera traps
🌾 bee science, elephant behaviour & coexistence

A huge thank you to TAWIRI, and everyone who stopped by to connect with us and share ideas. We left feeling inspired by the curiosity and commitment around human–elephant coexistence.

We’re already looking forward to returning next year and sharing new findings from our beehive fence research across Ngorongoro, Serengeti and Rukwa–Katavi.

📷: Owen & Masaka during the conference

Interested in learning more about how our Coexistence in Action Framework works on the ground?
➡️ Visit wildsurvivors.org or send us a message to connect.

02/10/2025

Dr Jane Goodall revealed to the world that animals have rich inner lives; with emotions, intelligence, and relationships of their own. Beginning here in the forests of Tanzania, her discoveries forever changed how we understand our connection to the natural world.

As a global messenger of peace and a tireless advocate for people, wildlife, and the planet, she showed us that all life is interconnected. Challenging the injustices and destructive practices that harm people and the planet.
Her courage, kindness, and unshakable hope continue to guide us; and it is now up to all of us to carry her mission forward. To respect, protect, and live in harmony with the wild world we share 🌍💚🕊️

Thank you, Jane, for the wisdom, love and courage you leave with us.

Images by Michael Nichols, Vanne Goodall (National Geographic), Ben Liew,

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Old Moshi
Arusha

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https://www.wildsurvivors.org/

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