Community Plant Nurseries as Alternative to Top-Down Tree Planting Programmes : A Case Study in the Central High Atlas of Morocco

Sammanfattning

The conservation and restoration of global natural ecosystems play a crucial role in combatting the ecological crises. Successful restoration could provide important benefits, and international leaders have committed to the restoration of millions of hectares of degraded lands. However, mainstream restoration programmes often focus on large-scale tree planting and have repeatedly failed. The conversion of restoration goals into practice remains a major challenge. In rural North Africa, top-down restoration approaches have previously faced opposition. Participatory conservation and restoration approaches are scarce in the North African context. This study therefore assesses a potential alternative to tree planting programmes that could play a crucial role in reaching restoration goals, namely community plant nurseries. It examines how community plant nurseries could contribute to successful restoration practices in a rural North African context by focusing on a case study of a community plant nursery and restoration programme in the Central High Atlas of Morocco, carried out by the Moroccan Biodiversity and Livelihoods Association. Using a qualitative approach, including desk research, field observations, an interview and a survey, this study identified how this community plant nursery and restoration programme operates, identifies good practices and challenges, and evaluates views from nursery beneficiaries. Findings suggest that community plant nurseries can have serious potential in overcoming obstacles faced by failing tree planting programmes, as they integrate several practices that are key to restoration success. In the social domain, community nurseries can contribute to participation and community involvement, community capacity strengthening as well as socioeconomic development. As in the ecological domain, community nurseries can aid in adaptation to the local ecological context and ecological conservation. However, findings also show that long-term funding remains a key challenge and collaboration can be challenging at times. This indicates an opportunity yet a lack of support for community nurseries in the restoration field. This study therefore argues for recognition of the potential of community nurseries and a substantial increase in support in order to reach global restoration goals. Findings of this study can be highly valuable in informing better decision making on restoration approaches which is crucial in solving the global ecological crises. Future research on long-term support for community nurseries is needed.