Noloholo Environmental Center
About
The only center of its kind in northern Tanzania, Noloholo is a first-class conservation and education facility and our regional headquarters.
The Noloholo Environmental Center is a critical resource and meeting place where indigenous communities, conservation organizations, educators, government leaders, and researchers from around the world come together to tackle our greatest conservation challenges. The beautiful campus consists of classrooms, meeting spaces, program offices, guest cottages, dining and kitchen facilities, staff housing, a dormitory, and outdoor learning areas.
Where is Noloholo?
Located just outside the border of Tarangire National Park, Noloholo plays a pivotal role in expanding our holistic approach to conservation across Africa through our ACTIVE™ Community Engagement program. At Noloholo, we are committed to advancing thought leadership, peer-to-peer learning, strategic partnerships, community involvement, technological solutions, and storytelling – all targeting the enrichment of land conservation, wildlife protection, and human well-being across Africa.
A Hub of Activity and Innovation
In the coming years with greater investments in programming, infrastructure, and operations, Noloholo will expand to become Africa’s first center of excellence for holistic conservation. We are developing a world-renowned innovation and learning hub to spark dialogue, collaboration, and creativity around the most pressing conservation and development challenges facing the continent today.
Please contact us to learn more and get involved with this exciting next phase of Noloholo’s evolution.
Great Room and Patio
Noloholo’s Great Room serves as a gathering area and meeting space. It features a large compass embedded in its floor and a ceiling covered with billowing cotton cloth. The adjacent patio is the ideal spot for youth to play educational games during environmental summer camps. The patio’s surface – which is also used for rainwater harvesting – consists of rocks collected from surrounding hilltops. The iconic red mortar was made by mixing clay from abandoned termite mounds with cement.
Program Offices
As a working conservation facility, Noloholo's field-based operations maximize the success of our community-driven model. APW team members possess a deep knowledge and understanding of human-wildlife dynamics and local approaches to conservation issues. Our programs are run from three local offices, each featuring high-speed internet and interactive desk spaces.
Seminar Space
Noloholo’s seminar space can accommodate groups of up to eighty people at a time and is fully equipped with projector capabilities and high-speed internet access. The room’s large windows are covered with lightly woven shades. During our environmental summer camps, the space is filled with fun learning activities and the songs of enthusiastic local students.
Guest Cottages
Our three guest cottages provide high-end accommodations for groups of six people or less. Featuring running water, solar-powered electricity, and modern, private bathrooms, each cottage sleeps two people. Additional accommodations can be arranged for larger groups.
Outdoor Learning Areas
Noloholo’s field-based location provides an ideal environment to learn about and experience community-driven conservation. The center’s surrounding areas are excellent for birdwatching, studying wildlife tracks, and visiting local conservation projects. During our youth environmental summer camps, the outdoor spaces are used for educational activities and games.
Green Facilities
Noloholo’s construction combines traditional building methods with the principles of sustainable architecture. The center is powered entirely by solar energy, providing year-round, twenty-four-hour electricity that runs our headquarters and offices efficiently. Our freezer and refrigerator systems are also solar-powered, allowing us to bring fresh food from the nearby city of Arusha on a regular basis.
Dormitory
Our airy, spacious dormitory is equipped with eight rooms that house up to thirty-two guests in bunk beds (four people to a room). The dormitory hallway is divided in the middle by a lockable door and can easily be partitioned by gender. Separate men’s and women’s showers and composting pit toilets are a short walk from the building.
The Noloholo Environmental Center was the ideal venue for the National Cheetah Coordinators course. Not only were the facilities comfortable and interactive, but the location offered excellent exposure to APW’s programs, local wildlife populations, and surrounding communities who face the challenges of living alongside the large carnivores that were our focus.
Nick Mitchell, Ph.D., Range Wide Conservation Program for Cheetah and African Wild Dogs (RWCP)
Related
Our Vision
We envision a world where Africa’s people and wildlife coexist and thrive in vibrant, healthy landscapes.
Where We Work
Tanzania is one of the world’s greatest centers of large mammal biodiversity.
Youth Environmental Education
APW is helping to grow the next generation of conservation leaders.
