59 MARTINDALE CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF PRIVATE ENTERPRISE ecosystems to promote a sustainable future (World Bank, 2023). This loan emphasizes the support for projects promoting sustainable practices. Following the experiments, foragers must be educated on sustainable practices. This can be done by educational visits from Moroccan university scientists in rural communities or, alternatively, by partnering with programs such as the Morocco Country Fund, a collaboration with the Peace Corps that aims to engage with and educate communities on issues such as the environment, economic development, water, and agriculture (Peace Corps, n.d.). These visits are led by volunteers who walk through the practices and discuss immediate consequences of them. Not only will these practices sustain the availability of the plants but also add to the yield of the product and improve its quality. Supporting cooperatives for increased and fair profits Cooperatives are an important part of the Moroccan economy and help increase jobs and decrease poverty, specifically for women. They are businesses that generally craft handmade, local products and goods and are controlled by their members democratically. The democratic nature of co-ops gives each member a voice in the business and a sense of independence (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas [ICARDA] Communication Team, 2022). Aid to cooperatives from governmental and nonprofit organizations would help spread awareness of sustainable harvesting practices of MAPs while promoting business practices to boost profit and preserve the environment. Supporting cooperatives also increases female participation in agricultural practices and, subsequently, the economy. This reflects a modern transition that recognizes and promotes gender equality in Morocco. In 2004, USAID Morocco drafted the Integrated Agriculture and Agribusiness Program (IAA) with the goal of increasing profits and jobs from agricultural products and supporting the competitiveness of agricultural value chains. One of the value chains identified as a key focus on the project was MAPs. The Beni Yâala Zkara rosemary cooperative is an example of the benefits cooperatives have for sellers and in protecting the environment (USAID: Morocco, 2012). The IAA program worked by educating collectives and established cooperatives on sustainable harvesting practices, such as rotating harvesting sites and cutting less than half of the plant. In addition to education, they provided financial support and trained cooperatives on new production, marketing, financial, and administrative techniques and supplied cooperatives with modern equipment and processing locations. The Beni Yâala Zkara cooperative was able to create 200 jobs in collecting and processing rosemary. They also increased national and international rosemary sales and were able to grow profits from Dh200 per liter, about $20, to Dh1000 per liter, or approximately $100 (USAID: Morocco, 2014). Along with these profits, the rosemary products were certified organic, indicating that the products are free from chemicals, genetically modified organisms, and pesticides, reflecting a more environmentally beneficial agricultural practice. The IAA model was able to transform the production system from inefficient and unprofitable into a modern and active part of the medicinal-aromatic production chain. The same results have been seen with olives, capers, and argan oil, but the IAA program has been criticized for not making enough effort to continue connections between cooperatives and aggregators, a reason many of their programs fail to continue. Aggregators, such as supermarket chains and food distributors, are essential for helping develop the value chain and providing marketing and financial support to encourage production. Without these key players, the IAA program became weaker and is now not represented in Morocco as strongly as it was in 2012 (USAID: Morocco, 2012). The IAA program presents a guideline of impactful steps for integrating rural communities into business decisions and plant processing, but its shortcomings resulted from a lack of financial resources from the USAID. Thus, there is a need for reliable funding, such as from the National Human Development Initiative created by King Mohammed VI and other donors that fund cooperatives. Specifically, the High Atlas Foundation is an organization that supports agricultural cooperatives for women in Morocco. It supports ideas for cooperatives by providing information about financial support, planning, and understanding the workings of cooperatives (Joke, Rakia, & Lynn, 2018). Health and sanitary precautions are other limitations to expanding the MAP market. Since 2004, cooperative funding from the USAID has continued, but the COVID-19 pandemic put intense stress on rural communities, forcing many cooperatives to shut down or limit processing. Many rural communities do not have certifications that assure quality and sanitation, but a recent collaboration between Oxfam (a global charity organization that works to prevent injustice and poverty) and ICARDA is providing solutions. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Oxfam
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