It is indispensable to satisfy both of vitalization of rural economy and forest resource management in rural Africa. It is especially important to promote continuous participation of rural people in environmental conservation which takes long time to be effective. To keep this in mind, our team has conducted practical research to support endogenous rural development in some areas in southern highlands of Tanzania. Since 2010, we have started small trial of pico hydro power which is supposed to stimulate people's motivation of afforestation and environmental conservation. We have made the pico hydro power systems which adopted to fluvial environment by learning from pico hydro powers made by rural people's spontaneous initiative as well as ideas of Japanese traditional turbine.  
     Technical assistances in developing world tend to aim "recovery from bad condition". However, pico hydro power, which meets the recent socio-economic needs by applying the technology available in rural areas, may contribute to positive rural development as well as to promote motivation for environmental conservation.
     In this project, our team aims to promote pico hydro power with environmental conservation activities through farmers' exchange programs among 4 areas where we have been working. By doing this, we including Japanese researchers and technicians, stimulate each other creative improvement of generating technology and environmental conservation technology. These technologies will be improved appropriately for each community's environmental and social contexts. We document and examine the process from the interdisciplinary views and put the results in perspective for environmental conservation model-local production for local consumption of energy in rural Africa.