At the heart of the Mama Buci story is a mission to rebuild and invigorate impoverished communities in Africa by helping to create sustainable employment and education opportunities. 

Beekeeping has been a popular income-generating activity in Zambia for centuries. However, most of the honey produced is kept in traditional bark hives, which involves a harvesting process that strips the bark from the tree. This method, over time, sadly leads to the death of the tree. This not only has a negative impact on the environment but also to the beekeepers’ income as the bees need the trees to produce honey. 

Recognising this issue, Mama Buci founder Martin Zuch and friend John Enright, spent two years developing a more sustainable beehive. Their treetop bar hive preserves the trees and provides a permanent hive for future communities to benefit from. The new beehives have flourished in the Miombo forests of Zambia, producing over 12kg of honey on average per hive, in a structure that, if maintained properly, could last a lifetime. Martin and John knew they’d found something that could really make a difference. 

The Mama Buci team have taught local craftsmen how to build the beehives, who now build over 150 beehives a day, 5 days a week, in the Mama Buci workshop. Over 70,000 beehives have been provided to the local community, which can produce over 400 tonnes of raw honey per year. Each new hive helps the bee population to thrive and therefore has a positive environmental impact.

 Local hive owners are paid an above market price for their honey and beekeepers within the Mama Buci honey scheme have seen their average wage increase significantly. The success of the Mama Buci enterprise has had a positive impact on the education of local young people, with many families now able to afford to send their children to school. Profits from the sale of Mama Buci honey are reinvested in the local communities, where so far over 7000 families have been supported with the provision of hives and the training and education needed to be self sufficient small-scale honey producers.   

In 2005 Mama Buci founded the charity Give Hope Africa to give children in some of the poorest areas in Africa a chance in life through education. They currently run projects in Zambia and Ethiopia.

Mama Buci’s pure, ethically produced, sustainable, honey was awarded the UK Great Taste Gold Award in 2014, 2018 and again in 2023.