In Morocco, the project to preserve the argan oil industry is making progress

In the Agadir region of Morocco, the argan oil industry is under threat from climate change (drought) and human pressures (urban sprawl, intensive agriculture, overgrazing, desertification). This woodland is economically and socially vital to the Berber people: farming, stock rearing, argan wood and oil production, Morocco’s yellow gold.

The aim of the Foundation project is therefore to preserve the argan-focused ecosystem and to sustainably improve the social life and economic conditions of the local communities living within the Mesguina forest of the Drarga municipality.

The first, diagnostic, stage of the project is complete, and the reconstruction of a pilot area covering 13 douars (villages) is scheduled for late January 2014.

The second stage of the project will get underway in spring 2014 with the building of a bioclimatic kindergarten class, with other agricultural and socio-economic projects scheduled to follow over the next two years.

The project architects, recently returned from a field mission in December 2013, are now fully occupied with their plans for the new school.