Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Chapter 5
Desertification and Its Control in Morocco
Y. Hammouzaki
Synopsis
This chapter reviews the status of desertification in Morocco. It is divided
into three parts. (i) the general context (ii) causes of desertification in Morocco (both
proximate and the root causes and (iii) efforts to combat desertification and land
degradation (past and planned).
Key Points
•
In Morocco, the process of desertification affects large areas. It is more pro-
nounced because the climate is arid and soils are vulnerable to erosion. Also,
precariousness of life of the rural populations pushes them to overexploit
the natural resources to satisfy their increasing needs, which accentuates the
deterioration of surroundings.
•
The sectoral approach adopted to attenuate the natural resources deterioration
showed its limits because of the increasing amplification of the deterioration.
This situation incited the public powers to adopt new orientations of development
that result in the strategy of rural development. In this context Morocco finalized
a National Action Program (NAP) for Combating Desertification (CD) which
constitutes an important stage in the process of its commitments within the
UNCCD. The NAP-CD is conceived to promote a strong articulation and
a synergism between the sectoral programs through actions of support and
accompaniment of the process of combating desertification. Specifically, there
is support of actions that promote income-generation, combat the desertification
and attenuate the effects of drought, and reinforce the network of monitoring
systems. For the implementation of NAP, the institutional mechanism of coordi-
nation has been set up) a mechanism for follow-up and assessment of impacts of
projects and different ecosystem observations have been initiated. The success
of NAP-CD as political engagement and as tool of programming of concrete
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