By Hajiba Boumasmar, HAF Program Coordinator Our country is full of history and cultures that connect between two communities, those of Moroccan Muslims and Moroccan Jews. We work together, constantly trying to preserve our culture so that it is not lost to new developments the world over. I want to share my experience at the

من إعداد: يوسف الطاهري منسق المشاريع بالمؤسسة لا يختلف اثنان على أن قطاع الفلاحة مساهم أساسي في توفير فرص الشغل، خصوصا في العالم القروي، اذ تشكل المساحة الصالحة للزراعة بالمغرب حوالي 8.7 مليون هكتار، وتمثل فيها الحبوب حوالي 57 بالمائة  من المساحات المزروعة. هيمنة هذه الاخيرة على المساحات الفلاحية المزروعة ، جعلت الفلاحة ضعيفة التنوع،

By Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir HAF President The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) implements the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program (F2F) in Morocco. As part of this volunteer initiative team members visited the members of the Aguerzrane women’s cooperative located in the Toubkal Municipality of the Taroudant Province on Thursday the 8th of July. It was a follow up

The Importance of Plants in Religious Art, San Diego Jewish World. By Prof. Ellen Hernandez MARRAKECH, Morocco — What is the message conveyed by the representation of plants in religious text? What do the images that these references bring to our minds tell us about a people and a society? These are questions posed by

By Jasiah Hasan In the past fifty years, Morocco’s population has nearly tripled. Mass migrations and urbanization have pushed more than half of the growing population into cities, producing huge shanty towns. Residents lack access to clean water and sanitation services. Such barriers can lead to higher risk of waterborne diseases, such as malaria and

By Samirah Jaigirdar A fruit tree nursery managed by members of the Aguerzrane Women’s Cooperative in Morocco’s High Atlas, a project that has benefited from the expertise provided by the USAID-F2F Volunteer Program (HAF, July 2021). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) or Global Goals are a collection of 17 interlinked global goals designed to achieve

By: Samarth Saksena North African and Middle Eastern nations can combat climate change through well planned landscape restoration initiatives leading to carbon sequestration, but also indirect benefits like job creation, food security, and improved livelihoods and resilience. Restoration initiatives are best carried out when the right partnerships are formed between all sectors of society. The

تقنيات تخزين وحفظ المحاصيل الزراعية في المغرب/ تأليف: أليسا أندروود, Al Bayader. By Alyssa Underwood Farmers employ a variety of post-harvest crop storage to protect crops from post-harvest damage. Many of the methods employed in developing countries and on small-scale farms are traditional methods that use local resources. Modern storage methods use modern technology to

By: Said Bennani, HAF Project Manager and HAF Team Imegdal Nursery, Morocco. On June 4, 2021, Project Manager Said Bennani and a group of volunteers visited the Imegdal and Tassa Ouirgane nurseries. The first stop was the Imegdal nursery, where they met nursery caretaker Hassan Ait Ba on the new nursery land. To date, five

By Said Bennani, HAF Project Manager and HAF Team HAF Project Manager Said Bennani, Driver Abdelghani Kastih, and volunteer Youssef Tahri, all visited the Tadmamt and Akrich nurseries on June 3, 2021, to start off an insightful visit and viewing of the communities. The first stop was in Tadmamt, where they met assistant nursery caretaker

Profound Partnerships: FRÉ Skincare and the High Atlas Foundation, Maravi Post. Zuha Afzal | 2021 HAF-UVA Intern Abstract The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) is an international development organization based in Morocco whose mission is to promote sustainable development. By supporting and empowering local communities on capacity building, clean water initiatives, pro bono legal aid, youth

By Marij W Janjua, HAF UT-Austin Intern The HAF team visits the Tassa Ouirgane nursery in early June 2021 where saplings of carob, fig, and pomegranate are growing well. “Desertification  and  drought,  which  are  a  degradation  of  environmental  health,  contribute to the collapse of biodiversity and favour the appearance of zoonoses. This is yet  another 

By Karam-Yane Azzabi, Program Coordinator The HAF team visits Tighmert Oasis to meet farmers who benefited from the Afous Ghissiki project and planted trees with HAF in 2021. It was with great excitement that I hit the road to Sidi Ifni accompanied by Abdeljalil Ait Ali, HAF Field Manager, and Mustapha Id Said, HAF Driver

Webster Hill HAF-UVa Intern The terrain of Morocco provides the opportunity to achieve tremendous agricultural and environmental results. The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) plants fruit trees across the country with rural communities. In 2021, HAF-community collaboration has planted 700,000 trees of nine fruit varieties, with 6,000 farming families in 39 provinces. In addition, 1.6 million

بقلم يوسف الطاهري : متطوع بمؤسسة الأطلس الكبير تنقل فريق مؤسسة الأطلس الكبير الى جماعة توبقال عبر مضايق تيشكا مرورا بمنطقة اكويم وتيديلي، بقيادة مديرة المشاريع بالَمؤسسة السيدة أمينة الحجامي ومساعدتها السيدة صفاء بن كروم، و متطوعة من الديار السلوفينية السيدة سيمونا زوبنز بتاريخ 25 ماي 2021 قرية أكرزران الجبلية  :لقاء تعاونية اكرزران النسائية  بين

Fieldwork in the Toubkal community by Simona Zupanc On Tuesday, 25th of May we started our journey to the Toubkal community. We went together with the project manager Amina El Hajjami, program assistant Safae Ben Karroum and volunteer Youssef Tahiri. Although we did not know each other, I easily joined the group of highly motivated,

Megan Sprotte and Megan Williams HAF-UVA Interns  In her recent essay, “The Labor of Agrodiversity in a Moroccan Oasis”, Karen Rignall examines the recent history of farming in the Mgoun valley in southern Morocco in order to explain how agrodiversity, labor, and tradition interact in current small-scale agrarian systems. Rignall emphasizes lines of thought that

By Caroline Culmo, Rohan Krishnan, Anjali Mahajan, and Elisa Zhang After nearly a year of working with the High Atlas Foundation on the development of a business plan for value added-walnut processing as volunteer consultants from the University of Pennsylvania, our team had the opportunity to visit several of HAF’s agricultural cooperatives and walnut tree

By HAF staff The consequences of environmental degradation extend far past a loss of natural resources or fragile ecosystems. The livelihoods, well-being, and health of people across the world is also at stake – particularly in regions that are already highly vulnerable to climate change and suffer from rural poverty, such as Morocco.  A unique

Sanae Benaadim HAF’s Office Manager & Volunteer Coordinator Students from the University of Pennsylvania’s International Impact visiting with the fruit tree nursery of the Takhrkhourt Women’s Cooperative in Asni municipality of the Al Haouz province. On May 18th, I travelled from Marrakech with the HAF President, Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir, Project Assistants Lahcen Ait Ouatouch and

Female Empowerment Can Drive Development in Morocco, Morocco World News. By Molly Case Charlottesville, Virginia Despite its international reputation as a reformist country, women in Morocco continue to face significant obstacles to social, economic, and political participation. Progressive revisions of the Moudawana Family Code (2004) and amendments to the Moroccan constitution (2011) have aided in

Nicole Luz HAF-UVa Intern When people speak of the protection and upliftment of children, those in juvenile detention are often forgotten. In Morocco, children between the ages of 12 and 18 who have committed a transgression of the law are often housed in Child Protection Centers (CPCs). Children who were abandoned, had to be removed

Making the Farmer King: The Need to Shift Our Approach to Agriculture, Morocco World News. By Olufunmilayo Aiyegbusi The Hague, Netherlands Looking through my grandfather’s diary 25 years after his death, I got some insights into the life of a farmer. Although he had three farms which would have added up to at least 100

By HAF Team Approximately 100,000 almond, walnut, and cherry saplings grow in the Tadmamt nursery on land lent in-kind by the Department of Water and Forests – Marrakech-Safi. HAF has ambitions to enhance the monitoring of its trees, measure carbon sequestration at a scientifically and socially responsible standard, and promote reinvestment back into the sustainable

Arabic version Written by Youssef Taheri, HAF Volunteer Translated from Arabic by Kaoutar Ait Lahaj, HAF Program Coordinator A photo exemplifying the effect of climate change What is meant by climate change? The concept of climate change is generally defined as the changes that occur at the level of the climate with a rise in

Dear friends, It is a special time of year – and a special week. We are celebrating the earth, our volunteers and partners, and the holy month of Ramadan. With the close of the planting season, our team is now visiting villages in 39 provinces across Morocco to monitor the 700,000 trees planted this year

A Unified Emissions Trading System By Finn Grundmann With a value of $299 billion, the trade of carbon credits has become one of the fastest growing markets globally. But with growth comes complexity and a global challenge. In working with the market’s many requirements, rules, and standards, I learned quickly that both simplicity and partnership

Blooming Morocco: One Argan Seed at a Time, Morocco World News, By Zuha Afzal – HAF-UVA Intern. Zuha Afzal – HAF-UVA Intern Deciphering effective mechanisms for long term growth is a journey that most certainly involves a variety of factors to be considered. Factors such as sustainable growth, women empowerment, clean drinking water, and planting

Written by MAP Ecology in Arabic Translated into English by Kaoutar Ait Lahaj, HAF Program Coordinator The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) celebrated the inauguration of a solar irrigation system in the Akrich nursery in the rural commune of Tamslouht, Al-Haouz province. The nursery produces seedlings intended for later distribution to regional farmers and schools. The

Written by Hajar Toufik, Journalist, in Arabic Translated into English by Kaoutar Ait Lahaj, HAF Program Coordinator The High Atlas Foundation (HAF) continues to develop its projects relating to the creation of organic tree nurseries by using the arable land belonging to the Moroccan Jewish community.  Nearly ten years ago, the High Atlas Foundation (HAF),