Close of the Call – 30th April 2020

Welcome to Proyecto Mezquite

The project long-term ambition is to improve the welfare of less advantaged community groups in the drylands of developing countries, including Mexico, Kenya and Tanzania using Mezquite (Prosopis).

We aim to promote ethical and sustainable environmental, social, cultural and economic development to benefit marginalized communities in Mexico, Kenya and Tanzania. We aim to support communities to help themselves, thus all research proposals and solutions proposed by Proyecto Mezquite have been co-created with input from dryland communities.

We aim to recover and transfer mezquite local and traditional knowledge from Mexico to other communities and nations, if the owners of this knowledge wish to do so.

In Mexico, we aim to encourage communities to use mezquite in a sustainable and holistic way and encourage reforestation. Mezquite, a tree native to the arid and semi-arid zones of Mexico is extremely resistant to drought and is one of the few species that grows where other plants are unable to survive.

Management of Mezquite in Africa is challenging and complex, and we believe it requires a multi-sectorial, multi-disciplinary and multi-national approach. The project seeks to support efforts towards management of Mezquite by utilization; and join efforts in these areas where control by eradication is not possible. Is at these areas that we can help communities to utilize Prosopis in a productive and commercial way through sharing of traditional and indigenous knowledge from the project member states (Tanzania, Kenya, UK and Mexico) and to enhance research capabilities and innovation in the use and management of Prosopis.

Past Projects

  • GCRF, Networking grant: Sustainable and holistic use of mezquite to improve quality of life in developing countries  1 Jan – 31 Jul 2019

Current Projects

  • GCRF, Research grant: Studying the use of mezquite to improve welfare of communities in arid and semi-arid zones of the world. 1 Aug 2019 – 31 Jul 2020.
  • British Council, UK-INAPI, Mexico: Mezquite: a means to improving sustainable social, cultural and economic welfare in arid and semi-arid zones of Sinaloa and Mexico.  17 Feb 2020 – 16 Feb 2021

People

We are a trans-disciplinary and multi-sectorial team collaborating to generate alternatives that respond to dryland community needs. Our aims include performing excellent research and increasing local research capability and innovation.

Resources

This section contains resources and reading material for people that are interested in finding out more about mezquite. It also contains resources we are generating for the benefit of communities and the public.

Communities

At present we are working with communities in

Mexico:

  • San Juan de Guadalupe, Durango
  • Estación Doctor, Sonora
  • El Fuerte y Choix, Sinaloa

Kenya (Baringo County):

  • Il Chamus
  • Tugen

Tanzania:

  • Lang’ata Bora, Nwanga District