Producers
Aruna Bangura / Tiwai Honey Initiative
community-based honey producer · environmental-conservation initiative · beekeeping training initiative
Eco Camp, Tiwai Island, Pujehun District, Sierra Leone
Bangs Circular operates the Tiwai Honey Initiative, a youth-led, community-based beekeeping and conservation initiative in the Tiwai Island area of Sierra Leone. The initiative produces and markets Tiwai Honey, trains local beekeepers, and links honey livelihoods with forest conservation and environmental education.
About the Producer
A little history
Founder Aruna Bangura launched the Tiwai Honey Initiative through Bangs Circular in 2023. A later first-person project update places the launch in 2024, so the precise operational start date needs confirmation. The Iris Project records Bangura as a 2023 Seed Prize runner-up and 2024 Stem Prize winner.
How They Work
Beekeeping in practice
Tiwai Honey Initiative is a community-based conservation and livelihood model. It trains youth and community members in beekeeping, hive management, honey processing, conservation education, and reforestation-related activities. Mongabay reports that trained beekeepers retain ownership of beekeeping and honey harvesting, then work with Bangura’s team to sell honey. Profits are shared among cooperative members. Honey is a direct, locally supplied product rather than a conventional large-scale commercial brand.
Eco Camp, Tiwai Island, Pujehun District, Sierra Leone
Public location listed on the Bangs Circular website.
Boma, near Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, Sierra Leone
Bangs Circular says the initiative is rooted in Boma, a community neighbouring the sanctuary; it describes community-based beekeeping there.
Communities surrounding Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary, Sierra Leone
The Iris Project states that the initiative supports sustainable beekeeping among communities surrounding the sanctuary and places hives in surrounding/buffer-zone landscapes.
Boma, Sahun and Kambama, Sierra Leone
Mongabay’s report identifies these communities in discussing community members’ honey harvest income under the initiative.
Products & Specimens
What connects to this producer
Products listed by the Producer are kept separate from specimens held in the Collection.
Tiwai Honey
Documented origin: Honey harvested through community beekeeping around Tiwai Island Wildlife Sanctuary; reporting specifically identifies beekeeper communities of Boma, Sahun and Kambama in connection with the initiative’s honey harvests.
Origin detail: Locality
The official site identifies Tiwai Honey as its honey product and locates the work in the Tiwai Island/Boma area. Mongabay’s reporting on the product and supply chain names Boma, Sahun and Kambama as communities whose members earned income from honey harvests. No product-specific floral source, batch-level origin, or statement establishing that all Tiwai Honey comes from one single community was found.
People
People connected to the work
- Aruna Bangura Founder, Bangs Circular; founder/project lead, Tiwai Honey Initiative
- Abu Bakarr Barrie Project coordinator
- Debora Amobey Social Media Lead
- Hawa Bangura Financial Lead
Practices
How they work
- Community training in sustainable or climate-smart beekeeping, hive management, honey processing and environmental education.
- Beekeeping is framed as a forest-friendly livelihood alternative to logging, deforestation and poaching.
- Habitat restoration and reforestation are part of the initiative’s stated conservation approach.
- The initiative describes its honey as raw organic honey.