Global Lessons on Greening School Grounds and Outdoor Learning
Morocco | Global Diversity Foundation
An innovative ethnobotanical garden at Dar Taliba Ourika girls’ boarding house in Morocco is part of a larger program spearheaded by the Global Diversity Foundation (GDF). Through this program, GDF supports biodiversity conservation in High Atlas communities while maintaining cultural landscapes, conserving biocultural heritage and building capacities and institutions. Although traditional plant knowledge and horticultural practices are an important part of well-being in Amazigh communities of the High Atlas, when children leave home to further their education, they often lose the opportunity to learn about the traditional knowledge of their ancestors. The Dar Taliba ethnobotanical school garden represents a model of a green school ground aimed at safeguarding and transmitting Amazigh Indigenous plant knowledge from local communities.
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The garden enables students from remote villages to continue their education beyond primary school, and provides a space for the students and local community to share their knowledge and learn about traditional plants and their uses, as well as learning and sharing different land use and agriculture practices.
Key Aspects of the Case Study
- Ancestral knowledge. The ethnobotanical garden provides a space for the students and the local community to share knowledge and learn about traditional plants and their uses.
- Diversity and inclusion. Every year, the garden provides outdoor activity space for more than 180 girls from underprivileged communities, where they connect with nature and build community.
- Sustainable practices. Routine activities include permaculture training that teaches valuable skills such as seed saving, cultivating aromatic and medicinal plants, making organic fertilizer, and growing and harvesting organic crops.
“The garden enables the girls to spend leisure time learning about biodiversity conservation and agroecology practices. It also contributes heavily to the boarding school’s food security,” says Meryem Aakairi, Field Agronomist and Researcher
“I wish that all schools could have a similar garden, for the numerous benefits to students and the school,” says Fatima Ait Wahmane, Director of Dar Taliba Boarding School. “As well, workshops on agriculture and sustainable food practices” are also beneficial, according to Wahmane.