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This week, Hazina travelled beyond Tanzania and into an international conversation about the future of natural history collections. From Monday 7 to Friday 11 September, Simon Loader attended SPNHC 2026 in Cape Town, South Africa – a major international meeting bringing together people working with natural history collections, museums, biodiversity data and collections conservation. The programme covered everything from collections conservation and digitisation to biodiversit

There is something particularly satisfying about a training course where the classroom quickly becomes a laboratory, a museum collection, a field site or even the floor around a workbench covered in specimens, notebooks and equipment. That was very much the spirit of the recent Hazina Collections Development Programme training at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM), where Greg Pandelis and Christian Thrane spent several weeks working with students and curatorial staff to s

On 3rd September 2026, students from Vigwaza Secondary School visited the Hazina Museum at the University of Dar es Salaam. The visit provided more than an educational tour; it offered them a broader picture of the biodiversity found in their environment and an opportunity to learn about preserved specimens, including species they rarely encounter. It also allowed them to observe closely and better understand animals they might ordinarily fear, helping to replace fear with cu

Establishing the Hazina Natural History Collection involved far more than arranging specimen jars in cabinets. It began with a shared vision to ensure that specimens collected through research in Tanzania are properly preserved, documented and made accessible for future scientific study, education and conservation. Gregory Pandelis (on the left), Christian Thrane (on the right) and John Lyakurwa (at the middle) discussing on cataloguing approaches Reaching this stage require

Early on June 23rd of 2026, two members of the Hazina team, Martha Chiduo and Yeremia Chuhila, boarded a flight to visit Christoph Liedtke at the Biological Station of Doñana. The aim of the visit: to tour the second largest natural history collection in Spain and two science outreach centers: The Casa de la Ciencia ("Science House") and the aquarium. Hazina team members visiting the Biological Station of Doñana in Spain. From left: Christoph Liedtke, Yeremia Chuhila, Martha

When colleagues from the University of Dar es Salaam came to London, the plan was simple: see some collections, meet some curators and talk about how museums can preserve and use natural history for the future. What actually happened was a whirlwind tour through storerooms, galleries, laboratories, museums and some rather extraordinary pieces of natural history. There are some museum visits where you walk through the front door, admire a few exhibits, perhaps buy something fr