Before the last palm

Before the Last Palm is a long-term documentary project exploring the collapse of southern Morocco's oases due to climate change and water extraction. It examines daily labor, community resilience and generational shift at the desert’s edge.

"Before the Last Palm" is an ongoing visual investigation into the fragile oasis ecosystems of southern Morocco, where ancestral communities face the converging pressures of severe desertification, climate change, and aggressive industrial agriculture. For centuries, life at the Sahara’s edge has relied on delicate hydrological balance, sustainable farming, and communal stewardship. Today, rising temperatures, prolonged droughts, and groundwater depletion threaten to erase these centuries-old human sanctuaries, forcing multi-generational farming families to adapt or abandon their lands.

The project moves beyond apocalyptic imagery to examine the tension between ecological collapse and human resilience. It contrasts traditional, sustainable family cooperatives with the destructive footprint of commercial agribusinesses, such as intensive watermelon plantations that drain aquifers and pollute the soil with toxic plastics. Visually grounded in environmental justice and human dignity, the series observes how local farmers actively resist aridification by preserving native seed varieties, restoring soil health, and maintaining ancient irrigation systems.

Oases serve as early-warning indicators for global climate transformation. "Before the Last Palm" builds a comprehensive visual record of climate adaptation, challenging dominant victimhood narratives by centering ancestral ecological intelligence as a vital model for survival in an warming world. Through intimate portraiture, landscape documentation, and detailed visual evidence of agricultural labor, the project translates complex environmental policies into an accessible, deeply human story of endurance and belonging.