Mission & purpose:

The larger vision for the project was to restore waterways and recharge aquifers in the region, and bring communities and flourishing natural habitats back. The short term vision was to create a low-cost replicable example of regenerative agriculture and agroforestry capable of settling people back into the region, in conjunction with the implementation of landscape restoration practices to restore ecosystems and natural landscapes that once thrived here.

Existing conditions/situation:

• Dry, degraded and mostly barren landscape

• We started with only a few patches of vascular plants, deficient rainfall, and challenging access to supplies.

• Over the past few decades, the region around Mzouda has been progressively abandoned by its local population.

Approach:

We had a very holistic vision and methodology, including permaculture principles, ustalising natural processes and cycles like weather patterns, and implementing nature based earthworks and structures, and very much assessing situations and problems from a whole systems perspective.

Farmers power! - Half of the world's habitable land is being used for agriculture. People are actively managing this much land (and more), farmers are an incredibly valuable resource with their experience, knowledge and understanding of the landscape. The positive impacts that farmers could have on helping to regenerate our ecosystems is huge if we share knowledge and work in community!

Methodologies:

• We completed an in-depth site analysis and started designing long-term adaptive strategies, including water management plans, agroecological practices and regenerative systems.

• Catch it, Spread it, Sink it (water) was a highlighted moto used mainly throughout the design planning, as water is a very limited resource.

• Local Indigenous knowledge was gathered in open collaborations

• We used other important mechanisms for regenerating the soil like Animals. Chickens as well as cattle were used, and an arbor-loo system that uses our toilet waste to help establish early tree growth.

• We created large areas for composting, using left over animal manure.

• Set up natural grey water recycling systems.

This beautiful 30+ha arid/desert landscape restoration project is in the Chichaoua Province, Morocco. I am grateful to have been a part of the beginning stages of this incredible restoration project. The intention was to regenerate the soil and land to bring back nature and culture. We aimed to bring back the water flow of the local rivers while establishing rich biodiversity to encourage wildlife that can thrive once again.