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Rue:
Hello FRE, my name is Rue and today we are going to go live with Yossef from the High Atlas Foundation, so I’m going to invite him in and then we’ll get started. Alright, he should be getting it soon. So today we’re really going to be talking about Fré’s social mission, specifically our one set on tree programme, and here he is, the man of the hour.
Hi Yossef, how are you?
Yossef:
Good, good to be here.
Rue:
Good to be with you as well. Where are you talking to us from today?
Yossef:
I am from Elaraki International School in Marrakech, on the road to Casablanca. I wish I could tell you more about it, but we are having Green Week here at the school and an organization, a volunteering organization called AIESEC, whom Kaoutar is holding the camera for us – she is an alumni of AIESEC – an amazing international group that has young people volunteering their time and energy for all kinds of good missions around the world. They have organized a Green Week at Elaraki school, and here we are.
Rue:
Here we are. Great, so today we’re going to talk a little bit about you, the High Atlas Foundation and how you work with FRE, specifically our one set one tree programme. So first maybe we should get started and I'll let you introduce yourself.
Yossef:
My name is Yossef . I am approaching my 30th year giving whatever energy I have to Morocco. I started as a Peace Corps Volunteer in 1993 in the Taroudant province in the High Atlas Mountains, and a lot of us couldn’t just walk away. We were inspired by so many things, but I would say maybe primarily the stories of the people and their dreams and hopes and incredible difficulties. In the early 90s, every household in the village [where] I lived lost children to lack of clean drinking water, basically. So, it is very hard to walk away from that knowing that solutions are real and available and possible and affordable, and so I and others began the High Atlas Foundation in 2000. I've always gone back and forth between academia and work here, but since 2010, it has been full-time High Atlas Foundation in Morocco, and primarily Marrakech.
Rue:
Awesome, and what’s the mission of the High Atlas Foundation? I know you touched on it a little bit now, but what are you really doing today? What’s your main goal?
Yossef:
Well something we learned from our very start here that has been reaffirmed literally countless times – When we consider the development interventions around the world, practically since World War II, we learned that sustainability depends on community participation, the community design of the project, their prioritization, their management, evaluation, and control. They are the drivers, creators of the change that they want in their lives and the High Atlas Foundation really simply supports that process.
Often times when we go into community meetings, whoever we are – residents, member of civil society, a young person, an elderly person – we go in with constraints and doubts and fears, and with social control in our lives and relationships that maybe not enhances the rest we would hope, and so part of communities identifying what they want is to also look at (maybe first for us) those inhibitions that we all carry and what can we do to change that around and then go into planning the project. And, what we find is that when we take that time for self discovery – for building our belief and the vision that we want for our future – if we begin with that and then go into prioritizing projects and specific kinds of initiatives, we find that the project that results have long life and very serious dedication behind it, and so that’s really our job – to help communities create the plans that truly reflect their interests and what they most want for their families, for themselves, for their communities.
Rue:
That’s great, so listening to the community and helping them achieve what they’re looking for.
Yossef:
Exactly, and that’s… I think are deep connections with FRE skincare. Fré was actually born in the idea of corporate responsibility, it’s part of its beginning and we connect on that point of realizing the dreams of Moroccan people. But really helping them achieve the goals that they set for themselves and in Essaouira province where the Argan – and also Taroudant province – where Argan grows, women's cooperatives, community groups…They want to plant Argan, in fact it’s a generational benefit and not only do they want to plant Argan, they want to process and sell it directly to users or directly to corporations like Fréskincare. FRE skincare is also dedicated to that, not just planting the trees but purchasing the product directly from the woman’s cooperatives that produce that oil. We are also riveted on the idea that we don’t have priority other than the community and the cooperatives, and Fré and High Atlas Foundation joined in Essaouira province to make that kind of difference.
Rue:
Awesome. Do you think you can maybe talk a little bit about that program with the Argan cooperatives and how Fré and High Atlas Foundation have worked together throughout the past 2 years to do that?
Yossef:
Yeah, so maybe we’ll just take a step back and look at what’s going on nationally in Morocco in regards to rural development, which directly impacts the Fré-High Atlas Foundation initiative. In Morocco, 70% of agricultural land only generates 10 to 15 % of agricultural revenue – 70% of land, only 10 to 15 percent of revenue. And that's because of the heavy reliance of growing barley and corn in traditional ways. And it has to be overcome, among other things, that have to be sustainably managed in order for rural poverty to be really addressed. The growers have to be processors of their product, cooperatives need to be productive and able to achieve international standards of management and quality. Some other things need to also happen, but overcoming the barley and corn dependence without the farmers having the means to purchase the trees that they want… In Morocco, there are 13 varieties of fruit trees that grow organically and Argan is just one; walnuts, cherry, fig, pomegranates, lemon, olive, carob… So you know … thankfully Morocco is a breadbasket, a potential one in that regard. So there's huge demand on fruit trees in the country and so-and-so on Argan.
Now, our challenge with Argan. So with Argan, it is actually classified. Unlike the other trees that bear fruit, Argan is classified as a forestry tree in Morocco. And that's because once it reaches a certain maturity, 5-6 years, then it doesn't have to be irrigated. It grows as a forestry tree but in those early years, it needs to be irrigated and so we work together, Fré skincare and HAF, in order to generate the quantities of trees that people want. And so right now we built a nursery with over 60,000 plants. We are working together so the planting season basically begins this month. Hmdoullah last week, we really started to have good rain in Morocco. In Marrakech, it finally came a couple days ago. And so when that first rain comes, there's really a rush to plant, you know, the soil is ready, the ground’s ready, you know, this is the moment and it continues until around March, mid-March.
So we are very focused, together, on transplanting the Argan trees from the Community Nursery with cooperatives and communities in Taroudant provinces who want Argan, but one of the things that we have to also think about very seriously is because Argan requires those few years to be irrigated, it's not just a matter of simply planting with the people because they know that unless there's irrigation installed for those beginning years, it's going to be tough for that Argan forest to truly become just that. So we're also figuring out ways how we can help cooperatives and farming communities who are dependent on Argan, want to expand argon, or want to transition to it, to work with them in order to deal with also the water management issues, which is key in order for Argan to really be broadly absorbed and the net hectarage of argon no longer decline. Now, the decline has slowed, but we are not at a net gain every year of Argan trees being planted in the country. And the key, in order to achieve that, is to deal with the irrigation infrastructure. I spoke a lot just there.
Rue:
I guess I just want to share for the people watching who might not know how we work and how Fré works with you, is that for every set that we sell, we work with you to plant a tree in Morocco and all the irrigation and stuff I guess comes into play once a tree is planted. But really basically, like if you are there and you buy a product, you're directly giving back to the Argan rural cooperative, the people of Morocco and the environment from doing [that]. So maybe do you know off the top of your head how many trees we've planted together so far?
Yossef:
Well, we have 62,000 in nurseries, two nurseries, and we’ve transplanted several thousand. But this year, the trees have reached a growth level where we can plant 14,000 in a single location. And so, we've been able to work with the community. Now, the other challenge is we deal with land holders, farmers who have a hectare or less of land. We're talking about areas where less than 10% of girls go to secondary school because of issues of transport and costs and so, very difficult places. And so for us to say, well, we, they'd established an area of 20 hectares in order to plant Argan and this is a congruent area – it's not five factors here. Three hectares there … That means that every household in this village gave a piece in order to create together 20 hectares. And so, yeah, so we're dedicated to the 60,000 plus, we're dedicated to planting 14,000 in that area.
And so that's the thing. Now think about it; that is transformative in, you know, and the people know it. They know that Argan can live up to 200 years. Wow. And so they know that the future generations, inch'allah their generations. So it takes around say, you know, 12-15 years for an Argan tree to be genuinely productive but they know the life course of their community is forever shifted with this project. It's the only – so the High Atlas Foundation has helped build classrooms, clean drinking water systems, different aspects along the agricultural value chain, priorities to the people in agriculture and outside. And these kinds of projects are the only ones where we see tears at implementation, tree planting at this because the people know that life will not be as it was. So you know, the emotion, when a cameo truck of 4,000 - 5,000 trees arrives...There are tears because of the profound impact for the future that they know it means. So that's what we’re working to do with Fré to transplant from the nurseries. We've already moved… There are around 11,000 in the Taroudant Province already. And so in a new area where we're building up, we want to be able to have an Argan presence in Taroudant. So, we've already begun to move some of those trees there. And, [begun to] focus on getting these 14,000 [trees] planted, but we can do a lot more and we're working hard to get the water infrastructure so we can do a lot more.
Rue:
And when you say it, like impacts them, it's really life-changing – how does it impact their day-to-day life? These trees, it gives them jobs, it gives them financial stability? What does it do for them directly?
Yossef:
That's a great question. So, fruit tree agriculture, the cultivation and the maintenance is typically in the male domain of production, traditionally, and so, now, the processing of the oil is primarily done by women at wages that are, you know, excruciatingly low. We're talking about 25 dirhams a day, you know, maybe two dollars and 60 cents, 70 cents a day. And it's, you know, I don't want to get too far away from the question, Rue, but I just want to say that it's done by breaking the shell. And so the nut is placed on a rock and another rock is, you know, hits the shell and it's cracked and then it moves down the sort of assembly of separating the meat from the shell and then and so forth. And so I remember going to a cooperative, you know, not too long ago and asking one of the women who work there, you know, ‘how long have you had that stone? The same Stone?’. She had the same stone for 10 years, hitting that and it's just, you know, try for an hour. This is, you know… here's the point: that we work in order for women to be the ones who cultivate the trees and manage the nurseries and build their capacities and co-ops, technical and managerial around that. And so, of the 13 nurseries that we currently manage, supporting communities and their management, four of them are managed by women's cooperatives. And, you know, these are all 4 out of 13. That's not even 50%, you're right. And we need to get to 13 out of 13, but I will say that, you know, I'm grateful for those four cooperatives and what they endure, you know, it's not like, ‘Yay, go manage a nursery’. First of all, it's incredibly difficult work and it involves leaving villages, which is also culturally not easy for women and girls to do, and there's not immediate income. And so, they are doing this without encouragement, oftentimes at home until that income comes. So they're dealing with all kinds of stuff to be able to, you know, for me to be able to say to you, ‘there are four nurseries managed by women's cooperatives’. And because of that, means there's four cooperatives with members who have struggled and achieved more than, you know, who have done and achieved incredible things, unique in their municipalities. So, that's the thing, and we see our job too as bridging the gap between when they start and when income finally comes from the trees. And so, what we do in that regard, for example, we pay a monthly amount to the cooperatives and then we purchase the trees at, you know, at a cost that is profitable for them and allows them to reseed and maintain and have that monthly income going forward. And then we turn around and provide those trees to others.
And so with this, with Fré, we need to sort of work out that kind of arrangement which we have seen with these new nurseries. With Fré we want to work out that kind of arrangement which has allowed many other nurseries to be financially sustainable in this way. So where we first planted with FRE is in the Alhawz Province outside of Marrakech, in the Marrakesh province. And the eleven or 12,000 trees that we moved to Taroudant is managed by women's cooperatives, and those are the ones that we will begin to plant in Addar near their location, where the women's cooperative is. So, with the planting season, things move quick, you know, it's evolving. We have to get more trees down there to Taroudant to finish the 14,000 [trees]. We have a farmer-to-farmer program, which we've connected to this group and Taroudant with USAID and that's the capacity building component. If, you know, it's never just about building a nursery. It's about building our technical skills, our beliefs that we can do it. And that requires expertise and facilitators. And so there are programs that we also manage that help us provide that kind of support as well. Not just the seeds and infrastructure for water and all those things but the ability to manage all of that.
Rue:
Great! Well, I hope for many, many more trees and cooperatives and infrastructure to do all of that to come. It was really, really wonderful talking to you and learning all of this. There's things that I didn't even know about. So it was great to speak with you and maybe, I really want to see – you showed me the courtyard earlier – maybe we can show people the courtyard, it's super beautiful.
Yossef:
Yeah, it's such schools in Marrakech. It is an international school and I'm actually Iraqi, my parents are, and so it's nice to be in the school called just that.
Rue:
Amazing.
Yossef:
Well, I will say this, that, you know, it's one set of the Fré skincare products that plants one tree, but that also monitors the trees with GPS coordinates. We take its height, its diameter. We do it twice over its first five years and that's really key. You know, if you were to also buy an Argan tree today, in a private nursery, you will spend on average – and we are very much into knowing what the private market is for trees – on average, it'll be about 17 dirhams each, maybe approaching two dollars, a dollar-eighty ($1.80), a dollar-ninety ($1.90) per tree. Now, why are we able to do a dollar a tree with monitoring? Because we grow them from seeds. And we retain that value with the community and so that really is….So just think about that; just to get the tree from a private nursery, we’d be spending double than what you are, and plus monitoring, you know. It's the holiday season. So, we've gone through the process of sending argon to Fré skincare and directly from the cooperatives. And so, that's the direction that Fré wants to go and it’s a beautiful direction. Not only are they planting trees with cooperatives, but they want to buy the end products from them too. And we found the quality and all of that standard to make it happen and Mickael and Michael are completely determined. So there's this note.
By the way, this is a reflection of their incredible dedication to this, but I just want to say that, you know, when you think about that product and you know, just remember that, it's the genuine article. It's Argan from Essaouira and it reaches an incredibly important level of health. And it matters here. That's what I just want to say. That product by its making and by its happy consumption, makes a difference in Morocco, a real work. And so I just want to thank Fré skincare for that, really to thank the Fré skincare community.
Rue:
Yes. Thank you to you and thank you to our community and to everyone who's purchased a set and an Argan oil. I think you said it best that it really, really matters. So, thank you so much.
Yossef:
Thank you. Take care everybody.
Rue:
Bye, take care.
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