L'argan : l'huile qui cache la forêt domestique De la valorisation du produit à la naturalisation de l'écosystème

Abstract

Résumé Denrée prisée par des grands cuisiniers ou composant de cosmétiques de luxe, l’huile d’argan marocaine présentée commercialement comme un produit fabriqué par les femmes, issue d’un arbre forestier et de pratiques purement sylvicoles, suscite depuis quelques années un intérêt soudain de la part de divers marchés. Cependant, malgré la célébrité de cette huile, vague est la représentation que se font les consommateurs de son origine, hormis l’image d’Épinal d’un arbre à chèvre endémique au Maroc, l’arganier (argania spinosa) , dont les fruits à noix donnent une huile aux vertus miraculeuses. À l’aube de la création d’une appellation d’origine sur l’huile d’argan, une réflexion scientifique ayant pour objet de cerner l’impact sur les pratiques et savoirs locaux provoqué par l’explosion du marché de l’huile d’argan et par la multiplication des acteurs de développement dans la « zone arganeraie » semble s’imposer. À partir de l’exemple des politiques de valorisation de la filière huile d’argan, cette article démontre l’existence d’un processus de naturalisation des écosystèmes, d’abord symbolique puis pratique, engendré par l’action des développeurs.

Public Policies and Management of Rural Forests: Lasting Alliance or Fool's Dialogue?

“…It can come along with the "greening process" of agriculture, which tends to favor environmental services at large scales rather than production at local scales like in rehabilitation of chestnut forests in France (Michon 2011). It can accompany the environmental requalification of local knowledge into "traditional ecological knowledge", as observed in the international promotion of argan oil (Simenel et al 2009) or the recognition of the value of Indonesian agroforests by the Department of Forestry (Fay et al 2000). When political entities do not totally overlook the role of local people in the creation and management of rural forests, they present farmers as "managers of nature" and, consciously or not, tend to obliterate and even to prohibit some local practices considered as too agricultural, like slash-and-burn practices in Cameroon (Poissonnet and Lescuyer 2005).…”

“…When political entities do not totally overlook the role of local people in the creation and management of rural forests, they present farmers as "managers of nature" and, consciously or not, tend to obliterate and even to prohibit some local practices considered as too agricultural, like slash-and-burn practices in Cameroon (Poissonnet and Lescuyer 2005). Or they ignore certain features that are obviously too domestic, like in the argan forest (Simenel et al 2009). These political entities barely take into account the improvement of farmers' income and welfarewhich are key factors of farms' sustainability, particularly in forested areas with marginal economy.…”

“…In Cameroon, sustainable forest management policies do not provide sufficient income generation opportunities to local people compared to agricultural policies and macro-economic dynamics (Lescuyer et al 2012). In Morocco, NGOs' and market-driven developments of argan oil for international consumption is slowly changing the familial nature of the argan forest, which could deprive the rural poor of their argan resources (Simenel et al 2009). In most southern countries, agricultural development still relies on the elimination of trees and forests, whether on government lands or in rural forests.…”

Forests as Patrimonies? From Theory to Tangible Processes at Various Scales

“…It distorts the socialecological nature of local patrimonies (Simenel et al 2009) by disassociating the material dimension of the patrimony (the ecosystem) from associated practices. It puts forward a naturalist vision of the argan forest ("natural," "unique," "endangered") that altogether, and in a rather contradictory movement, negates the existence of long-standing local management and domestication and disqualifies them.…”

“…The argan tree constitutes the support of a variety of spaces managed for grain culture, pastoralism, or argan oil production (Simenel 2010). These different spaces are managed by a complex set of practices and rules distributing access and use rights of the different stakeholders through time and space (Simenel et al 2009). This articulation among families, lineages, and tribes, among beneficiaries of fruit harvesting, field cultivation, or grazing, relates to a strong historical dimension that binds the history of people to that of places and trees (Simenel 2010), which constructs the argan forest as a multidimensional domestic patrimony ).…”