Sustainable Agriculture Morocco Project #1563

Plant Trees to Empower Farming Families in Morocco

by High Atlas Foundation

Project Report | Oct 6, 2021
Cities4Forests: A City-Led Call to Action

By Henry Prillaman | HAF-UVA Intern

On September 22nd, I had the pleasure of attending the World Resources Institute Cities4Forests declaration. City leaders from around the world came together to discuss their current methods of forest conservation and more than 50 mayors pledged to work for greater restoration of forests in the future.

The main panel of our leaders for the discussion consisted of Mayor Bruno , of Salvador, Brazil; Mayor Yvonne, of Freetown, Sierra Leone; Mayor Anil , of Kochi, India; and Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council.

Deforestation and degradation of the world’s forests have proved to be a serious problem in efforts to alleviate the stress on the climate and the world’s population. We are in need of actionable effort to stop this loss of forests, and cities around the world are taking that action. They are working to create urban forests, whether this be planting trees around the city or even creating mini forests in previously abandoned lots. Forests directly within the vicinity of the city aren’t the only important areas to conserve, as forests upstream have great importance for water regulation and purification. This implies the need for cities, policymakers, and citizens to work together to not only create new “urban forests,” but also help restore and conserve forests everywhere.

Mayor Bruno is working with other mayors in Brazil to help protect the nation’s forests. He represents Brazil’s National Front of Mayors (FNP), an association of over 400 mayors who are working to create more sustainable cities and engage in projects to address the issue of deforestation. Reis made a statement on the future of his city, that Salvador is committed to reaching carbon neutrality in 2049, and tree planting efforts are an important part of achieving this goal. He wants Salvador’s projects for urban trees to be inclusive, sustainable and just for all citizens in the city. Mayor Reis wants Salvador to become the premier Atlantic forest of Brazil, and he has a vision for how to accomplish this. He finishes his opening remarks with a promise: “You can always count on Salvador to protect our forests. We are available to Brazil and around the world to raise this issue.”

Mayor Yvonne, of Freetown, Sierra Leone, has advocated for increased tree planting and monitoring all across her city. Freetown has recently experienced mudslides, so citizens have been planting on slopes to combat the problem. Planting trees around Freetown and the surrounding areas not only mitigates disaster but also increases biodiversity. As the trees mature, their growth is monitored and payments are made to the cultivators. Mayor Sawyerr wants Freetown to become “Freetown the Tree Town,” and she’s accomplishing this through citywide projects and initiatives to have citizens take more of an active role in planting trees.

Mayor Anil, of Kochi, India, has observed a worrisome trend around his city. Kochi is surrounded by ancient temples, which are full of trees. But these trees have been starting to dwindle as the city has expanded. Mayor Kumar wants to work to save the forests through initiatives for education and city projects. He called these forests the “Lungs of the City” and is pledging to protect, conserve and replant trees to keep these lungs intact.

Last on our main panel was Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of The Glasgow City Council, Scotland. Councillor Aitken acknowledges a couple of difficulties for Glasgow in their tree planting efforts, namely that urban reforestation is an expensive process. In addition, Glasgow is still living with a heavy physical, social and economic industrial past. Despite these obstacles, Glasgow has pledged to plant 18 million trees over the next 10 years. She views this as more important than ever after the pandemic, as green space helps to improve the physical and mental health of a city’s people. There is high inequity of green space available to citizens in Glasgow, but a UK-wide program is aiming to solve this. TinyForests is working to make very small-scale forests the size of tennis courts in small, unused parking lots around cities. These previously unused portions of property will allow Glasgow to become a much greener and climate-conscious city.

The need for reforestation is more important than ever, and The High Atlas Foundation (HAF), of Morocco, is working to answer the call. Many of the leaders that spoke in this discussion realized the importance of everyone working together to effectively make change across the Earth. This is where foundations such as HAF can be imperative. HAF can fill in the gaps between jurisdictions, working across the land to plant trees and impact citizens. They have pledged to plant 10 million fruit trees by 2025, impacting 50,000 farming families in Morocco. The world needs a unified effort to help our forests, through local and national governments, foundations like HAF, and public initiatives large and small. We can all work together to save our forests and trees to keep them thriving for years to come.

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Sep 22, 2021
Healthy Farms Can Save The World

By Henry Prillaman | HAF-UVA Intern

All around the world, we have seen deforestation and overuse of fertilizers and pesticides that have led to degradation of the environment. Contrary to expectation, from the “Healthy Farms, Wealthy Farmers: Repurposing Agricultural Subsidies to Restore Land” discussion from the World Resources Institute, we see that subsidies have actually led to some of this destruction of the environment.

Helen Ding, a senior economist at the World Resources Institute, began this discussion on how these subsidies are not living up to their primary objectives. Subsidies can lead farmers to deforestation to spread their land claims, as well as overuse of fertilizers that detract from natural arable land. Twenty-three percent of land productivity has been eliminated due to deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions and twenty-four billion metric tons of fertile soil is lost every year. This is more devastating when we consider that the subsidies being given to help farmers are in turn hurting our environment and, in the future, will hurt farmers.

In addition, Helen Ding states that subsidies around the world aren’t helping decrease poverty. We have seen countries lose their soil health, fail to increase productivity, and incentivize deforestation all from misallocation and unideal subsidies.

The solution is to change how the subsidies are given and to whom they are given. Subsidies should be reallocated to restoring soil health and increasing sustainable farming practices. In the World Resources Institute discussion, Helen Ding outlined that $400 billion of current subsidies across the world could be repurposed to have a better use that would facilitate farm health and in turn help the environment. Subsidies have been shown to not only hurt the farmland and environment, but also not significantly help farmers.

In a recent repurposing of funds in Costa Rica, $500 million from gas tax revenues were transferred to protect the forest, boosting the tourism economy by 6% from 2017-2021. Placing subsidies in the right places can have far reaching and profitable results. The benefits listed in “Healthy Farms, Wealthy Farmers” for switching subsidies to protect and restore farmland and ecosystems are fewer incentives for deforestation, increased biodiversity, greater ecosystem resilience, better soil quality, higher crop yields, extra income for farmers, increased food security, lower carbon emissions, and more jobs.

There is a need to assist the smallholder farmer to help restore the land and save the environment. In addition, monitoring systems are needed to track these subsidies and their goals, such as the lowering carbon emissions, to better show the sub.

The High Atlas Foundation is working to satisfy these goals in Morocco. HAF works to restore farmland and biodiversity through planting trees utilizing local seeds, assists farming families with their focus on women’s and youth agricultural development initiatives, as well as continual monitoring of their trees planted to gain best practices and support carbon offsets. Subsidies allocated as Helen Ding prescribes would allow for HAF’s mission to be administered all around the world with all kinds of governments, foundations, and groups, working to help restore the land we live on by empowering farming families.

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Aug 11, 2021
Tree Cities of the World

By Simone Borelli | Project Lead Technical Officer

Celebrating global leadership in urban and community forestry

Urban forests help define a sense of place and well-being where people live, work, play, and learn. The Tree Cities of the World program is an international effort to recognize cities and towns committed to ensuring that their urban forests and trees are properly maintained, sustainably managed, and duly celebrated.

To be recognized as a Tree City, a community must meet five core standards that illustrate a commitment to caring for its trees and forests. Our goal is to connect cities worldwide in a new network dedicated to sharing and adopting the most successful approaches to managing community trees and forests.

Recognition through the Tree Cities of the World program represents the first step toward achieving a green vision for your city. In order to receive recognition, a town or city must meet five core standards:

STANDARD 1: Establish Responsibility

The city has a written statement by city leaders delegating responsibility for the care of trees within the municipal boundary to a staff member, a city department, or a group of citizens—called a Tree Board.

STANDARD 2: Set the Rules

The city has a law or an official policy that governs the management of forests and trees. These rules describe how work must be performed, often citing best practices or industry standards for tree care and worker safety. The rules also include where and when they apply and penalties for noncompliance.

STANDARD 3: Know What You Have

The city has an updated inventory or assessment of the local tree resource to establish an effective long-term plan for planting, care, and removal of city trees.

STANDARD 4: Allocate the Resources

The city has a dedicated annual budget for the routine implementation of the tree management plan.

STANDARD 5: Celebrate Achievements

The city holds an annual celebration of trees to raise awareness among residents and acknowledge citizens and staff members who carry out the city tree program.

The Arbor Day Foundation inspires people to plant, nurture, and celebrate trees.

FAO supports the development of urban and peri-urban forestry actions, projects, and strategic planning tools that promote a sustainable and resilient model for city development worldwide.

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