The world loves argan oil but Morocco’s trees are paying the price

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🗞️ Driving the news: Demand for argan oil — marketed globally as a luxury cosmetic ingredient — continues to rise, but Morocco’s native argan forests are under severe pressure from prolonged drought, overharvesting, and shifting land use
• Once seen as climate-resilient, the trees are now thinning, fruiting less, and struggling to regenerate as the traditional systems that sustained them unravel
• Cooperatives that produce the oil are also under economic strain, with workers earning minimal wages while middlemen and multinationals dominate profits

🔭 The context: Argan oil, long used in Moroccan cooking and skincare, has become a high-value global commodity used in products by companies such as L’Oréal, Unilever, and Estée Lauder
• Its production relies heavily on rural women who hand-process the kernels, but the forests they depend on have shrunk by 40% since 2000
• Climate change, encroaching agriculture, and market pressures have disrupted the traditional communal stewardship model that once governed forest use

🌍 Why it matters for the planet: Argan trees play a vital ecological role in halting desertification and stabilising the arid ecosystems of southern Morocco
• Their decline threatens biodiversity, water retention, and carbon sequestration
• Moreover, the shift from forest-based livelihoods to export-focused monoculture farming undermines climate adaptation efforts and erodes rural resilience
• The loss of argan traditions also represents a cultural and environmental double jeopardy

⏭️ What's next: Morocco has launched reforestation projects, including planting 100 square kilometres of argan trees on private land using water-efficient intercropping techniques
• A new round of government-backed storage infrastructure is expected in 2026 to help cooperatives negotiate better prices
• However, systemic challenges remain, including unequal market access, land pressures, and ongoing drought
• Without broader regulatory reforms and equitable trade practices, the survival of both the forests and the communities they support remains precarious

💬 One quote: “Don’t compete with the poor for the one thing they live from,” said Khadija Saye of the Ageourde Cooperative. “When you take their model and do it better because you have money, it’s not competition, it’s displacement.”

📈 One stat: The area covered by argan forests in Morocco has shrunk by 40% since 2000, endangering an ecosystem that once spanned 14,000 square kilometres

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