One Health in the Argan Forest

We are pleased to report that our One Health project with Amazigh women in the Argan Biosphere reserve in south-west morocco has been launched in the field. Our main objective is to improve the health of local communities, especially women who are the true custodians of the argan forest, as well as that of their animals and their environment by addressing specific health challenges at the interface between humans, animals and the ecosystem.

 WE HAVE STARTED THE PROJECT IN THE FIELD.

We have initiated the first phase of the programme which consists in doing a One Health diagnosis with professionals in the fields of animal health, human health and argan forest health. A young Moroccan agronomist has spent the last month undertaking preliminary interviews with women from argan oil cooperatives as well as with animal health professionals.

 Results from this survey will constitute the first baseline information available and will help us in developing the most appropriate methodology for the in-depth evaluation that is planned for next year. The agronomist  is a young woman from south-west Moroccco and as such was very well received by women working in the cooperatives.

 The key for One Health diagnosis is to build an underlying relationship based on trust with local women whom we will be working with. Otherwise we will not access real information from them. It must be remembered that women living in remote rural areas have poor access to health services so health records are most often very poor.  The only available information might be originating from the women themselves. Due to her cultural background, the young agronomist doing the field work has started to build such trust.   

 WE STILL NEED YOUR HELP.

We are still actively seeking funding for being able to complete the first phase of the programme as indicated on our fund-raising chart. If you happen to know anybody who might be interested in supporting our project, either as an individual or as a corporate business, please tell us to get in touch with us.

The project’s main objective is to improve the health of local communities, and especially women, as well as that of their animals and their environment by addressing specific health challenges at the interface using community-based methods.

 We are still working on the One Health diagnosis phase and have now identified other local scientific partners who will work with Prof. Z. Charrouf (world expert on the argan oil) and our organization. In June 2017, Dr J.Garnier had a successful meeting in Rabat with Prof. Charrouf and with an expert specialized in livestock management in arid ecosystems who will bring in his knowledge and experience to the project. We have already identified potential Moroccan students to work with us on the project and will advance this process within the next two months once students have gone back to University.

Our future site visit and meetings with women from argan oil cooperatives, which will allow us to identify all One Health challenges, is now scheduled for the first quarter of 2018 but we have already identified some critical issues as being relevant to our programme, such as scorpion stings.

In Morrocco, around 30,000 people are known to be stung by scorpions every year, where the species Androctonus is known to be very aggressive to humans. In the argan forest, we have also identified that there has been a high number of fatal cases of envenomation by scorpions involving women and children every year, where medical aid was not accessible. This will be one of the One Health challenges that will be investigated and addressed by the project.

Links:

• High number of scorpion envenomation cases in Morocco