Project Report
| Jul 19, 2018
Six years following the UNDP's grant to launch the Tadmamt tree nursery
By Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir | HAF President
![]()
Six years after the implementation of the walnut tree nursery at Tadmamt, located in the Rural Commune of Asni (Province of Taroudant), the nursery continues now in 2018 to provide approximately 125,000 trees annually for the region and beyond. The land of the nursery is provided in-kind by the Regional Direction of Waters and Forests in Marrakech, and its initial funding in 2012 was granted by the United Nations Development Program. In 2016, the nursery started to include almond seeds, and this year it was expanded in size by about one-third through the ongoing generosity of Waters and Forests. Ecosia, a social enterprise based in Germany, is HAF's most recent partner that has invested in this nursery for Moroccan farming families, and enabled the fulfillment of its expansion.
The news of the good consequences of this organic fruit tree nursery gets even better. First in 2017, HAF concluded a partnership agreement with the High Commission of Waters and Forests in Rabat that enables the national allowance for granting of land by Waters and Forests to the High Atlas Foundation for community tree nurseries. This Agreement now encourages Morocco's regional administrations to enter into a similar partnership with HAF that was achieved with the Tadmamt nursery in the Marrakech region. In this regard, HAF and Tetouan's Regional Direction of Waters and Forests signed a partnership agreement to implement a 3.5 hectare nursery in the Province of Ouezzane. This nursery will concentrate on growing the 14 varieties of Moroccan endemic fig varieties that are threatened. Pending agreements for land from Waters and Forests for organic tree nurseries currently exist with the regions of Beni Mellal and Taroudant.
Furthermore, since the launch of the UNDP-funded nursery in Tadmamt in 2012, HAF expanded the initiative to include the organic certification of walnuts and almonds (including 300 hectares in the Toubkal municipality), empowered local cooperatives, and processed (with certification from the Moroccan ONSAA food inspectors) and sold ten tons of product. Lastly and vitally, HAF also developed the capacities as a team to monitor and register the trees for potential sale of the carbon credits that they generate. As part of their agreement in 2017, HAF works with the High Commission of Waters and Forests and its regional administrations yo monitor and have certified the carbon credits sequestered by the nation's forests. This is a major undertaking and we are discussing with the Waters and Forests managers in Beni Mellal and in its Province of Azilal specific forests to advance this vast potential.
The UNDP's initial investment keeps on giving and has grown to include expanding the original nursery, creating new nurseries, the achievement of the agricultural value chain, the granting of Waters and Forests land for community carob plots granted for cultivation, carbon credit monitoring, and new vital partners. HAF could not be more grateful to all stakeholders, past and present, and for all those who join this cause of sustainable organic agriculture, processing, and carbon credit monitoring to end rural poverty in Morocco
![]()
![Share on Twitter]()
![Share on Facebook]()
