MOROCCO May 11, 2007

 

IDENTITY CARD

 

-Official name: Kingdom of Morocco

-Population :33,241,259

-Capital : Rabat

-Largest city : Casablanca

--Official languages : Arabic

 

-Government: Constitutional monarchy

 

-King: Mohammed VI

 

Geography

 -Localisation : North Africa  -West Coast : Atlantic Ocean-North Coast : Strait of Gibraltar and Mediterranean Sea  -East : Algeria-North : Spain-South : Western Sahara, Mauritania -Area: 446,550 km² 

Beauty councils May 6, 2007

Care of night for the face:

After your make-up removal of the evening, apply argan oil to your face and didn’t forgot your neck.

Care of the body:

With leaving your bath, gently mass the skin of your body. If your skin is very desiccated, do not dither to coat your body before taking your bath. Have patience approximately 30 minutes then plunge in the water!

Capillary Mask:

If your hair is dry, apply argan oil to the aggregate of your hair. Mass and let pose approximately 30 min before making a soft shampoo.

Care of the nails:

To strengthen them, soak your nails in a made up bath with share equal argan oil and of lemon. Leave your nails in this preparation during 10 minutes.

RECIPE May 6, 2007

L’Amlou: the Souiri breakfast

Components:

3 tablespoons ( C ) with almond puree – 3 C with honey all flowers -3 C with Argan Oil

Mix the whole in a soup plate. Soak its bread (ideally barley bread) and to taste it while drinking a green tea with mint.

Tomato salad to Berber

Components:

4 quite ripe tomatoes – 1 soft onion – 1 lemon Argan oil – 15 fresh strand of coriander – salt and pepper.

Peel tomatoes and cut them out of dice. Peel and slice thinly the onion. Mix the whole in a dish. Dress of 2 tablespoons with Argan oil, to add the juice of lemon, to salt and pepper. Snip the fresh coriander and mix. Put to refresh 15 minutes before being useful.

Souiri Couscous

Components:

The broth is composed of 2 carrots – 1 white turnip – 1 section of marrow – 1 zucchini – 1 aubergine – 4 peeled tomatoes – 1 sweet pepper – fresh coriander – 1 C with soup of strong current el hanout – 2 tablespoons with olive oil- salt – pepper and 8 strand of saffron – 100 G of cooked chick-pea.

Put the whole in the couscous dish with 2 litters of water. Bring to boiling, to reduce fire and to let cook during 20 minutes. Take 200 G of semolina couscous; moisten with 2 dipper of the broth, to let rise up. Shell the semolina and to put it to cook 10 minutes in the top of the dish. Incorporate a nut of butter and to give it to cook during 5 minutes. In the middle of a dish, make a cone with the semolina and to lay out sprinkled vegetables of the broth. Sprinkle, in spiral, a few quantity of Argan oil on the cone.

Traditionally, a piece of goat is cooked with the broth. It can be replaced by a half chicken or a lamb shoulder.

A wine containing syrah is extremely appreciated in association.

         Bon appétit !

The women’s employment in part of Argan tree May 6, 2007

The part of argan tree is more isolated and impacted in mountains.

Women in this part are very dependant of men because they take every decision (for economy, work, house, children…). Men have a monopoly, and control everything there: women’s work incomes…

And yet, these women working in agriculture account for the main labour force and are not paid for this work because, it’s considered like an extension of domestic work. Women contribute to farming and stockbreeding uppermost to men, and with rudimentary conditions.

These inequalities are very bad for the argan tree society. In fact, they create unevenness in the society because of the superiority of men discriminate women and children. The impact on the society is a bad life for women and children, a women illiteracy rate exalted, and a paucity of equipment and infrastructure (safe water, electricity, hearth…).

Moreover there is a restricted access to resources, which do not facilitate the development of the place.

To ameliorate every living day of the women, they need to access to sanitation, safe water, education, energies and resources like farmland, income…

For that, some women have created the women’s cooperatives. These women have generally a special position: divorced or widows for example. But these cooperatives point out an attitude of change of women, who look for self-sufficiency.

These cooperatives will enable the women to get organized without any dependence of men. These women with a special position could work and gain a social status dignified, and ameliorate their standard of living. These cooperatives could spread over all women, and enable women a financial autonomy and an economic power, and a restriction of their discrimination.

Indeed, with an income, the women can improve their standard of living (with safe water, electricity, a better adult literacy rate…), send their children to school, have more responsibilities, and be independent…

These cooperatives could change men’s behaviour, allow evolving traditions…

At last, these cooperatives make possible a modernisation of agriculture, and a possibility to ameliorate the argan oil marketing.

The argan culture offers to women the emancipation’s possibility, and an area of development.

The argan tree: source of development May 6, 2007

In this region classified by UNESCO world heritage, the argan tree it represent to him only the symbol of the ecological and socio-economic life of the South of Morocco. The argan tree presents a big economic interest, because it is a tree with multiple manners. Every part of the tree is a source of food or incomes for the local populations: the wood is used as fuel, sheets and fruits constitute a feed for goats and the oil extracted from the almond is used in human food and in traditional medicine.

The argan so assures the subsistence of some 3 million persons.

The objective is to value the main product of the argan tree, which is the oil of argan, so as to allow groupings of women to pull a better profit of their work.

 

In what measure did the initiative improve the socio-economic conditions and the well-being of the community?

 

We notice an increase of the implementation of initiatives to group together the persons working in the argan.

The object of this initiative was to share with the local communities of the expected surplus so that they realize the fact that the argan tree is economically interesting and that they involve in a natural way in the regeneration and the reforestation of the region. We thus saw the creation, with several partners, of women’s cooperative for the production and the marketing of the oil of argan.

These projects so allowed the improvement of the socioeconomic conditions of the women and the awareness by the women of their rights. They bloom and they are proud to work in cooperatives because they are now better respected. Their incomes allow them to school their children, to improve their environment, to feed better, to get dressed correctly and to look after themselves. They became more credible. Thanks to the lessons of elimination of illiteracy, the women became aware of the interest of knowledge to read and to write. The women also participated in the other activities of training: training in the formulation of a project and in search of capital for his realization and training in the savings.

The valuation of the oil of argan allowed a significant improvement of the incomes of the women of cooperatives and also those who collect the fruit of the argan tree.

 

Which effects on the biodiversity?

 

Besides this socio-economic role, the argan tree plays an irreplaceable role in the ecological balance and in the conservation of the biodiversity. It contributes to the preservation of the ground and allows to fight against the hydric and wind erosion who threaten with desertification a good part of the region.

The population of argan tree declines in term of surfaces and especially density. Within half a century, the average density of argan tree is crossed (spent) by 100 trees / ha in 30 / ha. This degradation believes from one year to the next under the influence of the increase of the population and the livestock, the appearance of the intensive farming which engenders the deforestation, the over stocking, a greater desertification and an exodus increased by the rural populations.

He becomes for that reason urgent to look for a better use of the tree for the benefit of his users so that they are more motivated to protect and to transplant the argan tree.

                                                                      

PRESENTATION May 6, 2007

IDENTITY CARD

- Vernacular name: Argan tree, Argan, iron wood

- Scientific name: Argania Spinosa

-Family : Sapotaceae

- Average height : 8 – 10 metres

-Average life : 150 – 250 years

 

GEOGRAPHIC DISPERSION

1 – Story

The argan tree is on the earth maybe since the tertiary. At this period there was perhaps a connexion between the Moroccan seacoast and the Canary island. After this tree has been disseminating on a great part of this Morocco at quaternary. There has been a glacial period who leave this tree only on certain area like the south-west and some next to the north and the Mediterranean cost. Today the most of them are in the Souss region.

In fact, we can find it now in the southeast of Morocco specially in the Souss plain. It for this mind we can say that it’s an endemic tree.

We can ask us Why this tree grow up only in the Southern of Morocco?

TREE FEATURES

1 – Silhouette

 

- In general

It has a particular silhouette. It has a large and round summit, a knobbly bole, intricate and rather short most often with many interwoven part. It have thorny branch. It’s for this they called it “spinosa”.

-The Wood and the leafs

The argan tree have a really hard wood called “ iron wood ”. The leafs are green dark and tough. They are eating by camel and goat who don’t hesitate to climb at branch.

-Flowers and fruit

There are white and yellow flowers who appear in May-June. These flowers give yellow-brown fruits at maturity who is formed by a pulpy pericarp all around the hard stone.

In this stone there are tree oily almonds. The fruit is oval and measure approximately 30 mm. One tree produces 8 kg of fruits by years.

This tree have an environmental role, it can assure an ecological balance. In fact with its roots system who grow in depth it can protect soil against erosion. It enrich the soil also with the leafs, the fruits and also with the vegetation who grow under the tree.

3 – Climate

The argan tree is really resistant to high temperature. In fact he is perfectly adapted at the southeast Moroccan aridity and can support until 50°C. It doesn’t need a lot of water and a lot of soil. But it can support a low pluviometry and can grow up in cliff.

4 – To the future

There are people who work on this tree to discover the specificity. In fact, there are scientist like Mrs Zoubida Charrouf who work on this tree to have scientific knowledge on the oil and other argan products.

There is also agency like IDRC (International Development Research Centre) who had worked for the development of argan oil treatment cooperative managed by woman.

UTILIZATION

This tree is use to different products. We can quote products like Oil extract of the almond and use in cosmetic, in pharmaceutical or in feeding or the (tourteau) for the cattle fattening. This oil has a great food value that have a great place in population economy. We use also the wood like combustible and to joinery. The leafs and the fruit are use for the fodder.

The firewood and the alimentary oil are use today by some 3 million of rural people. They play a part social and economic in the countryside population who allow limiting the rural exodus.

BE CAREFUL

Unfortunately the argon tree is in danger in the plain of Souses. The trees are cut down. It’s really shame that this heritage so be it destroy when you know that you can find it only in Morocco.

So what can we to do? What the government can to do?