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Greening the Atlas mountains

Establishment of a pilot training center "anti-erosion systems" Foundation "Perma Atlas" (Latifa Oumlil) In Morocco .

Perma Atlas accompagne les communautés locales Berbères du Haut Atlas à travailler sur un avenir durable.

Création d'emplois pour les jeunes et professionnalisation dans la conception et la réalisation de systèmes anti-érosion pour la communauté Berbère du Haut Atlas.

Dans le cadre d'une mission régionale pour la lutte contre l'érosion, les inondations et la régénération des espaces naturels dans le Haut-Atlas, 1800m Alt.

Notre objectif est de réparer l'écosystème et de nous engager dans le développement local.

Des mesures concrètes visant à revitaliser l'économie des vallées, évitant l'exode rurale massif vers les villes et les pays d’Europe.

Des projets qui donne une perspective d'avenir dans leur propre région.

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Our goals :

 

  • Fight against erosion and flooding , reforestation in arid zones.

  • Creation of jobs and skills for rural populations.

  • Reforestation and reintegration of endemic plants.

  • Implementation works: swales (downs) with weir, micro-dams, active gabions (stone in a wire cage),
    passive gabions (stone mounting without cage in erosion zones).

  • 150m3 basin supplied only with rainwater.

  • Installation of a drip network.

  • Protection of the pilot center by fence.

  • Recognition and indexing of species endemic to the surrounding valleys.

  • Intergenerational link: Discussions with the village elders (questions and answers on the ecosystem of the area).

Progress of the project

First year :

  • Study of the geo-social context of the populations of the High Atlas "Design"

  • Preparation of a training cycle for the Berber community of the Col du Tichka region.

Second and third years:

  • Creation of a pilot training center in anti-erosion systems and creation of an intervention brigade.

Course content and methodology:

  • Free and compulsory training workshops were offered to local populations, a sinequanone condition for access to employment in paid work sites.

The goal was to adapt to the socio-cultural context and to transmit without suffering rejection from the populations

  • Workshop / training over 2 days: reading the landscape, topography of the place, setting up test works with preparation of roadmaps to be followed to allow immediate realization of these paid participatory projects in total autonomy.

  • Remunerated site for 2 to 4 weeks.

This method was very successful, and the elements most concerned became themselves trainers and work supervisors.

PREAMBLE

General informations

  • Establishment of a pilot center on 1.2 hectares.

  • Installation of anti-erosion structures in a valley of 80 hectares.

  • Area: Angeltz, Tichka Pass.

  • Project of the NGO PermaAtlas with Latifa Oumlil (Holland).

  • Duration from implementation and implementation, 3 years.

The project in pictures

DESIGN

Design preparation

This magnificent project was born in the heart of Latifa Oumlil. She contacted our research firm "Radiant Design" to make her dream come true:

  • Fight against floods, stop erosion, reforest the arid valleys of the upper Altas by creating jobs.

  • After more than a year of preparation, discussions and taking social, technical and administrative information, it took Fabien Tournan and Frédéric Scholl another 3 years to mobilize the population of the village and carry out this project.

TRAINING CYCLE

Train, support, empower

  • Training cycles in the form of free participatory workshops, opening up to employment for citizens who have followed them.
  • Training over 2 days, theoretical courses, application in the area, sampling of works and implementation of a roadmap.
  • The students follow the roadmap independently and carry out the design by following the tools acquired during the training.

TOPOGRAPHY

Materialize the contour lines

  • Making Egyptian compasses and learning surveying tools (laser level).

  • Staking out areas.

  • Evaluation of the size of the structures according to the flow (quantity of water passing through it) and the% of slope of the area to be estimated.

ESTABLISHMENT OF SWALES AND BOOMERANGS

Establish structures to fight against erosion

  • Installation of swales, weirs, active gabions (cages) and passive gabions (stone piles).

  • Installation of boomerangs and other structures.

THE RAINWATER STORAGE BASIN

Collect rainwater to reforest the valley

  • Installation of a dam and a 130m3 basin with walls without metal reinforcement.

  • Study of the basin with a hydraulic engineer for the distribution of the masses according to the thrust and the size of the walls (height / width ratio, dam / weight technique).

  • Delivery channel with settling tank to retain large particles resulting from erosion.

  • Arrival of water in the basin, then redistribution in the drip network by gravity.

SETTING UP THE DAM

Fill a basin with a dam to collect rainwater

  • Find a thalweg allowing sufficient water collection to supply the basin.

  • Find the location with backing rocks to anchor the dam.

  • Manage the difference in level between the exit of the dam and the entry of water into the basin.

  • Delivery channel with settling tank to filter sand and silt.

FENCING

Protect the land from straying animals.

  • Epic installation of an arid fence in a pebble field with boulders flush with the surface.

  • Rope picketing of the fence.

  • Installation of 200 stakes for 600m of fence.

INDEX OF WILD PLANTS

Recognize, index and preserve wild plants

  • Weekend of training in the recognition of wild plants of the High Atlas with Fabrice Cuzin.

  • The goal is to recognize and index the plants, to be able to know their cycle, to recover the seeds and / or to make cuttings.

  • Recolonize the land with wild plants by diffusing seeds in areas where gabions are installed (retaining moisture and erosion substrates) and protecting animals (goats, sheep).

  • Help indigenous populations to preserve, protect, multiply and reforest arid zones.

IRRIGATION

Installation of the irrigation system

  • Drip irrigation.

  • Gravity fed from the pool.

  • Ability to feed young plants twice a week for 4 months.

REFORESTATION

Planting of various trees to reforest the valley

  • After discussions with the elders, we chose species resistant to arid zones, from bushes to fruit trees.

  • Swales, boomerangs and drip tips will help plants root and protect themselves from drought.

  • To optimize water retention, the plants were planted with cardboard protection and compost on the surface.

SYSTEM IN OPERATION

Images after the first rains

 

  • System in place, filling the dam, routing to the settling tank and filling the basin in operation!

  • In video and images ...

3 ANS APRES : UN CENTRE DE FORMATION ET UNE EQUIPE  D'INTERVENTIONS

Pérenniser les projets, rendre autonome, créer de l'emploi, répondre à des nécessités écologiques...

  • En 3 ans,  une équipe s'est formée pour réaliser des chantiers dans toutes les vallées de la zone. Cette équipe est devenue elle-même formatrice auprès des autres communautés berbères de la région.
    Ces 30 personnes formées répondent à des appels d'offres gouvernementales et associatives pour mettre en place des systèmes anti-érosion dans toute la région du Haut Atlas.

  • Création d'emplois dans la ruralité.

  • Leur mission : Former les jeunes et moins jeunes à s'investir dans les vallées pour lutter contre l'érosion et les inondations.

  • Répondre à des enjeux écologiques, maintenant!

3 YEARS LATER: A TRAINING CENTER AND AN INTERVENTIONS TEAM

La végétation reprends place au fur et à mesure

THE ACTORS OF THE PROJECT

Actors of change ...

Thank you to Latifa Oumlil for her investment, her courage despite the social, administrative and financial difficulties. It shows us the way of alternatives for the future.
Latifa ... thank you for your presence!

Thank you to all these faces of a harsh world, connected to life, to a harsh climate and endowed with a joyful rural precariousness.

Thank you to the village elders, for their stories, their advice which allowed us to understand their mountain and to read it in a sharing of extraordinary knowledge.

Thank you to my partner Fréderic Scholl from "Radiant Design" with whom I carried out incredible projects that have become anchored in reality.

Thank you to all these young people who took us for fools and initially invested themselves only to earn a salary.

Realizing the extraordinary scope of the works, they got caught up in the game ... Some make a living from it today ...

Do you want to carry out this type of project?

Training is available:

Anti-erosion system, soil regeneration, dam, food self-sufficiency, flood control, reforestation

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