By Pommelien da Silva Cosme, Global Diversity Foundation
As with most of our partners, COVID-19 deeply impacted our (field) work due to long-lasting lockdown restrictions. At the High Atlas pilot site, the Global Diversity Foundation tried to use this desk time wisely, and together with local partner Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihoods Association, launched a new resource: the High Atlas Biocultural Database. This database, the result of years of research carried out through the High Atlas Cultural Landscapes Programme, can be used to search for plants that grow and are being used in the Moroccan High Atlas. “This integrative and living biocultural database will be of great use for researchers as well as anyone else interested in learning about the rich biological and cultural diversity in the Moroccan High Atlas region. Seeing this multifaceted effort come to light to the public is a great pleasure and delight,” says Ugo D’Ambrosio, GDF Scientific and Technical Advisor.
In addition, we developed and distributed a colourful booklet that features local and useful plant products selected by local students in different regions in the High Atlas, including Imegdal, Aït M’hamed and Ourika. The “Amazigh Household Basket” booklet also features beautiful drawings produced by these students, including olive trees, corn, cherries, carrots and thyme and is available for download here.
Photo credit: A student in Dar Taliba Ourika shows her olive tree drawing in the Amazigh Household Basket booklet – by Pommelien da Silva Cosme, GDF
Despite COVID-19, local community researchers have continued to cultivate endemic, valuable and threatened plant species at community plant nurseries in Imegdal, Aït M’hamed and Oukaïmeden. Earlier this year, we distributed 24,900 medicinal and aromatic plants to 517 families in the High Atlas. These plant distributions help reintroduce selected species back to the wild, enhance rural incomes and decrease harvesting pressure on wild populations, which the community often heavily depend on for their livelihoods.
More recently, our team was finally able to return to the field and started carrying out research with local community members in Oukaïmeden on their traditional pastoral land management system, also known as agdals.
Photo credit: A local community member is interviewed on the agdal system in Oukaïmeden – by Youssef Rochdi
Workshop Discussions and Research Findings to Culminate in a Shared Resource on Increased Sustainability of Cultural Practices, Biodiversity and Livelihoods in Cultural andscapes
At a workshop held in March 2020, project partners explore economic practices and options that can sustain or improve the viability of cultural practices that support cultural landscapes across the Mediterranean.
New Brochure on the Root Causes of Overgrazing in Morocco
“The Roots of Overgrazing in Morocco: a pastoralist’s perspective” is based on the findings of a study that delved into customary laws and traditions, land use changes, wider socio-political and economic changes and pressures, and suggests some key solutions from a pastoralist perspective.
Mobile Pastoral Systems are More Profitable
“An economic analysis of transhumance in the Central Spanish Pyrenees” empirically evaluates mobile pastoralists’ claims that transhumance, a specific type of long-distance herd mobility, is a more profitable system compared to semi-extensive production in the Central Spanish Pyrenees.
Advocating for Sustainable Agriculture and Livestock
Mediterranean partners step up advocacy and lobbying efforts to promote policy changes in favour of agro-silvo-pastoral systems by contributing to the development of the EU Common Agricultural Policy beyond 2020, and more.
Solid Engagement with Communities Reveals a lot About Himas
Engaged mayors and locals reveal a wealth of information on communal governance systems in Hima Anjar and Hima Kfar Zabad, in the Shouf Reserve in Lebanon, providing crucial input to identifying best methods and practices to encourage community engagement and public participation in biodiversity conservation.
New Resources Feature Benefits and Value of Cultural Practices
Two new resources are available online: “Links between agricultural practices and biodiversity in Mediterranean Landscapes” (report and factsheet) documents cases across our pilot landscapes and the Mediterranean basin, while “the legacy of the land” is a visual tool that can be used to communicate the importance of biodiversity in agricultural landscapes.
Efforts to Inscribe the “Mandra-System” of Lemnos Island in the National Inventory of Intangible Heritage Underway
Following the successful proposal submission to inscribe melipasto/melichloro cheese in the National Inventory of the Intangible Heritage of Greece, effort is now afoot to develop a proposal for another element of the intangible heritage of Lemnos, that of the ‘mandra system’.
Reintroduced Nubian Ibex Species in the West Bekaa Caught on Camera, While Restoration Work of Degraded Pastures are underway
Camera traps capture images that show the reintroduction of the Nubian Ibex to the Shouf Biosphere Reserve in Lebanon, while implementation of a management and restoration plan for degraded high mountain pastures in the Himas of West Bekaa is underway.
Supporting Small-Scale Farmers as Food Systems are Under Serious Threat
In the dehesas and montados of Spain and Portugal, as the COVID-19 crisis revealed the vulnerability of production systems, project partners WWF Spain, Asociación Trashumancia y Naturaleza and WWF Portugal responded by advocating for support from the government for small scale farmers, while continuing efforts to promote sustainably-produced food.
Eating an Organic Mediterranean Diet Helps Fight Disease
For years nutritionists have extolled the virtues of a Mediterranean diet, now environmental NGOs like WWF are calling for us to improve our health and the environment by following the Med. The #MedFoodHeroes campaign from 15-27 June coordinated by @RootedEveryday celebrates the rich cuisine the Mediterranean has to offer and the benefits to people and planet when we buy from small sustainable producers.
