Desertification and Its Control in Morocco - Combating Desertification in Asia, Africa and the Middle East - page 95

An ancient management system allowed a piece of land to be taken from the
forest for cultivation, as long as it was subsequently returned to the matorral for at
least 10-20 years. However, this forest fallowing phase has been eliminated in view
of the need to expand agricultural lands. Furthermore, farmers secretly expand their
farmlands by encroaching on the forestlands, tree by tree, which is difficult for the
forestry officers to control. Together, all these actions are highly detrimental to the
forests and severely diminish the country's forest heritage and its biodiversity. At
the politico-economic level, reducing the woodlands jeopardizes their capacity to
absorb CO 2 and will, in time, penalize Morocco on the “CO 2 market” provided for
in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

4.2.3 Overgrazing

Overgrazing poses another serious problem for the Moroccan environment, e.g. in
the Draa Valley where vegetation is extremely sparse. In the five Draa Valley palm
groves, livestock figures are estimated at 186,000. The large numbers of sheep,
goats, and dromedaries are too heavy a burden on a fragile ecosystem, be it the part-
time rangelands far from the settlements, or the year-round rearing areas with high
stocking rates, located within a radius of about 4-5 km from the douars. Degradation
of the plant canopy allows the winds to carry away sand formerly held down by
the vegetation, thus accelerating the process of desertification that is already well
underway.

5 Efforts to Combat Desertification and Land Degradation

in Morocco

5.1 Past and On-going Activities

Morocco ratified the UNCCD in 1996, adopted its National Program to Combat
Desertification in June 2001, and established an institutional framework for its
implementation. The NAP complements existing sector programs, supports their
implementation and promotes an integrated drylands development approach to
enhance local livelihoods. Areas of intervention of the NAP include: (1) Promotion
of an enabling environment for UNCCD implementation at the policy, legislative
and institutional levels; (2) Building the capacity of relevant actors at the national
and local levels for drylands development; and (3) Implementation of integrated
programs addressing poverty alleviation, local governance and natural resource
management. NAP priorities have been effectively integrated into national develop-
ment planning and budgeting frameworks, leading to their effective implementation.
Morocco finalized a National Action Program (NAP) of Combating Desertifica-
tion (CD) which constitutes an important stage in the process of its commitments