Hazina takes centre stage at SPNHC 2026 in Cape Town
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 biodiversity research, public engagement and the challenges of managing collections in different parts of the world.
Iziko Museum Cape town, South Africa
Simon arrived in Cape Town on Monday evening and over the following days had the opportunity to meet colleagues from across the natural history collections community. For Hazina, it was a particularly useful opportunity to share what the project is trying to achieve in Tanzania and to hear how similar challenges are being addressed elsewhere.
Simon Loader (on the right) with his colleagues
Exploring colonial legacies
One of the highlights of the week was Simon's contribution to the Colonial Legacies symposium on Wednesday afternoon. The session brought together perspectives on how the history of collecting and museums continues to shape natural history collections today. The symposium was one of several sessions running as part of SPNHC's programme on Wednesday afternoon.
For Hazina, these discussions are particularly relevant. The project is not simply about improving cabinets, databases or specimens. It is also about thinking carefully about the history of collections, who has had access to them, where expertise sits, and how collections can better support Tanzanian research and researchers in the future.
That made the symposium an important space for Simon to discuss some of these issues with an international audience – and to hear different perspectives from colleagues working with collections around the world.
Putting Hazina on the map
Simon also presented the Hazina poster, “HAZINA ‘TREASURE’: Reclaiming Tanzania’s Natural Heritage Through Collections Development, Capacity Building, and Global Collaboration.”
The poster provided a great way to explain the project in a few minutes – and, importantly, to start conversations.
At its heart, Hazina is responding to a simple but significant challenge: Tanzania has valuable natural history collections held across its institutions, but their potential is constrained by issues including infrastructure, accessibility and public engagement.
The project is focused initially on the important vertebrate collections at the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM). The plans include stabilising and improving the collections, creating a secure and research-ready collections space, and developing the skills needed to care for and use these collections into the future. But the ambitions go further.
Hazina will support training for a new generation of Tanzanian curators and collections managers, covering areas such as specimen preparation, conservation, and database management procedures. It will also connect collections with MSc student research, allowing postgraduate students to use specimens and associated data to address questions in biology.
And perhaps most importantly, Hazina is about building partnerships – bringing together Tanzanian, regional and international expertise to create lasting collaborations around Tanzania's biodiversity.
Simon Loader and the Hazina poster
View or download the poster
Conversations that matter
The poster sessions at SPNHC were busy and informal, making them an ideal setting for Simon to talk about Hazina. Rather than simply presenting the project and moving on, the poster became a starting point for conversations about collections, training, infrastructure and collaboration.
There was plenty of interest in the practical challenges of developing natural history collections, particularly in places where resources and specialist expertise can be limited. These conversations provided opportunities to compare experiences and think about what has worked and what has not in other collections.
For Hazina, this international exchange is valuable. The project is deliberately about capacity building and collaboration, rather than simply transferring knowledge in one direction. Hearing from colleagues with experience in different collections and institutions helps the Hazina team consider new approaches while keeping the needs and priorities of Tanzanian collections at the centre.
Looking ahead
The week in Cape Town also provided a useful reminder of just how important natural history collections are. Across the SPNHC programme, sessions explored collections conservation, data management, biodiversity research, digitisation, national biodiversity information platforms and the role of collections in understanding biodiversity change. These are exactly the kinds of conversations that Hazina wants to connect with. The project aims to help ensure that Tanzania's natural history collections are not simply preserved as historical objects, but become active resources for research, teaching, conservation and understanding Tanzania's extraordinary biodiversity.
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