Click here to access our latest newsletter, including details about our participation in International Macaque Day and a wildlife trade workshop in Rabat.

The 2nd BMCRif Football Tournament was an even bigger success than the first one! This time, with the help of Youssef Salama of the Tetouan Football Association (who also provided the trophies); we tripled the amount of boys who took part in the games and reached 100s of people with our conservation message about the Barbary macaques. The qualifying matches took place over three weeks in October. Teams from villages around Jbel Kelti in the isolated calcareous massif also took part. The team from Lahcen came 2nd last year and they were determined to win this year so well done to them.

During the last few months, Sonia and Ahmed have worked very hard delivering a conservation education lesson to several schools in the project area. They talk about the macaques and the work of BMCRif and also give a lesson to the children on the forest’s role in the water cycle.

It was a busy autumn for BMCRif staff last year. Our First BMCRif Football Tournament was held in October and was a huge success. Four teams took part and the victors were Moulay Abdsalom. They were presented by a trophy provided by the Tetouan Football Association. The t-shirts were so popular that we ran out of children’s sizes and had to give adult t-shirts to even very small boys to avoid them being disappointed.
In the year since I wrote my last annual letter, I’ve made some important changes at the foundation—changes that will help all of us maximize the impact of our work together.

This month BMCRif is celebrating the anniversary of our first full year in the field and thanks to the generous support of the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS) and the knowledge of the local people we now have more information about the distribution and numbers of Barbary macaques in Bouhachem than ever before.

We are getting to know the whereabouts of many of the macaque groups of Bouhachem thanks to our local shepherd friends. One of these is Abuleela (right) who is from the village of Slalem. Abduleela has helped us locate a number of groups in the forest above his village.