Relations between institutional partners

In terms of understanding the problems of implementing projects, one of the most revealing episodes that occurred during my field research was the conflict between the NGO from Marrakech, GTZ, the Department of Water and Forestry, and Toubkal National Park. The project had already become a political issue between the communes of Ijoukak and Talat n’Yakoub in 2008, who disputed ownership of the pilot project.

However, the incident between the ‘Centre de développement de la region du Tensift’

(CDRT) and GTZ revealed major differences in the approaches and objectives of the two institutional partners. The German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) is an organisation supported by the Federal Government to achieve its development policy objectives. It offers sustainable solutions for political, economic, ecological and social development in a globalized world and promotes complex reforms and change processes, often under difficult conditions. It aims to improve the living conditions of people. GTZ has been working in Morocco since the 1960s. It prioritises economic development, environmental protection and the conservation of water resources. It has been a partner in the distillation project because of its involvement in the development of national parks in Morocco, hence, in recent years, Toubkal National Park in particular. It has been working in collaboration with the High Commissioner of Water

178 and Forestry and Fight against Desertification (HCEFLCD) over the last few years. The two institutions (the Department of Water and Forestry and GTZ) have had a long-term relationship and GTZ is now the new actor facilitating this participatory process. They are able to work towards achieving the Ministry of Interior’s agenda, i.e. the efficient and resourceful management of the country’s national parks, biological sites and overcoming the resistance of local populations. The connection between GTZ and CDRT, therefore, has been as partners with the Toubkal National Park and its strategies to develop the valleys within the vicinity of the park. GTZ has paid for a biomass study, and further allocated 40 000 dirham for a fruit drying unit that the women could use in a project, which had yet to be defined, but which could also be used for drying medicinal plants.

Following delays in the allocation of money at the commune level, the release of the contract between the Department of Water and Forestry and the Cooperative (CADEFA), the High Commissioner was under considerable pressure to move the project on. This in turn put pressure on the Department of Water and Forestry in Marrakech. The CDRT, still not quite ready to release the biomass results, was in turn pressurised. The NGO, as the initiator and coordinator of the project did all the ground work and had made the suggestion that a biomass study be undertaken. Exacerbated by an already tense relationship between CDRT and Toubkal National Park, the director of TNP accused CDRT of appropriating the biomass results. GTZ demanded the results but CDRT refused to release them on the grounds that it was not an advice bureau but a partner in the project. GTZ therefore blocked the 20 000 dirham for the biomass study.

This revealed already fundamental underlying differences. The CDRT coordinator as well as the President of the Cooperative already doing all the groundwork complained of the non-attendance of the institutional partners at commune meetings in Ijoukak. The dissatisfaction in working with the Department of Water and Forestry had been manifested as early as 2007. The coordinator of the project had spent a lot of time in the valley, regularly visiting Ijoukak and doing fieldwork in the villages, a commitment few were prepared to make. The normal sequence for participatory research was a quick visit up the valley in a four-by-four truck, a few hours spent in situ and a conversation accompanied by tajine and tea, and out again.

The project had received sums of money. The meeting of deadlines set by the higher accountable to higher institutions is imperative. These in turn respond to descending pressures. All things had been connected, or at least all organisations had

179 been connected, except that the CDRT isolated itself from GTZ, the Department of Water and Forestry and Toubkal National Park. To be fair, this situation was most unfavourable to the local population caught in the middle of internal political affairs which resulted in further delays. The institutional partner heavily criticized and discredited the coordinator of the NGO, who lost his status and respect in the valley. It would seem that the local people, and in particular the president of the Cooperative influenced by these false allegations, had forgotten the groundwork undertaken by the NGO coordinator. Following this unfortunate event, the Director of the Toubkal National Park in Marrakech and the GTZ coordinator in Rabat resigned. As GTZ and the Department of Water and Forestry pressed on with implementation of the project, to meet the deadlines and be ready for the next step, the High Commissioner and higher GTZ authorities in Rabat requested that an independent team conduct the biomass evaluation and the extraction of essential oil. A team of INRA engineers and GTZ consultants from Rabat eventually undertook the study in 2008.

In October 2008, the new director of the Toubkal National Park invited me to Tahannaoute where the results of the plant biomass and essential oil yield extraction studies would be released. I had first met the new director of the park, a woman, shortly after the resignation of the previous director. The meeting was chaired by the governor and official members of the Cooperative were obliged to attend although they were ignorant of the internal politics, the problems that the project was facing and felt and looked totally misplaced, away from the village. As the meeting was unfolding, I could not help interfering and requesting that the people should be heard. The physical positioning was very revealing: officials placed around the big polished oval table and the Berbers in their djellabas standing at the back in a second row. When asked what the Cooperative wanted to do, the President said: ‘Give us the money and the technical assistance and we’ll do the rest’. At some point during the meeting, someone raised the subject of the jama’a and its land access and enquired: ‘Is there any possibility that we could go back to the old institution?’ This did not seem to please the authorities, and the director of the local Department of Water and Forestry addressed the Cooperative members standing behind: ‘You should be happy, we used to reprimand you, now we are trying to find solutions to include you in the programmes!’

Shortly after these events, I received a letter from the Director of the Toubkal National Park. The Director asked me not to disclose the biomass and other results that I had heard at the meeting. They were concerned that I would disclose this information to

180 CDRT. This clarified to me the reasons why I had been invited to the provincial level meeting. Various people present on that day expected me to disclose my already collated results and other information. To me, the disclosure of my unfinished results and what I overheard at the meeting was unethical. Later in November 2008, I was participating at an international colloquium on sustainable development in Marrakech, where the official responsible for eco-development in the Toubkal National Park aggressively pressurised me to release my results.