Data published in a report by the Committee on Infrastructure, Energy, Minerals and the Environment, in the House of Representatives, indicates that forests in Morocco provide seven main jobs, and their value is estimated at 1, 5% of gross domestic product (GDP). These official data revealed that the deterioration of forest cover in Morocco is estimated at 17,000 hectares per year, with a reforestation success rate that does not exceed 48% in two years, while the Kingdom’s ambition is to reverse 30 years of this degradation.
Forests provide jobs, the document says, and protect the environment by preserving biological diversity and natural heritage. In terms of economic functions, they contribute to the production of wood and ensure ecotourism and recreational activities in natural spaces. However, the report notes, the forestry sector in Morocco is in a situation characterized by marked degradation due to overexploitation and the lack of development of forest resources and the production potential of forests varies between 20% and 30%. Regarding cork oak, Morocco has the third largest cork reserves in the world, but it only represents 1% of the value of exports, the document tells us again. As for the lack of ecotourism offers, in addition to excessive logging, which amounts to 3 million tonnes of fuelwood going up in smoke, they are not to be outdone.
These data, presented by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests this week, came on the sidelines of the approval of Bill 52.20 establishing the National Water Agency and forests, which will play an important role. in the implementation of the “Forests of Morocco 2020-2030” strategy, a new strategy for Moroccan forests based on a holistic, sustainable and wealth-productive management model, and aimed at reconciling the population with the forest field for all future generations, through five main axes.
In fact, when it comes to sustainable development, the report mentions climate change, deforestation and water stress, which at the planetary level is causing a population movement towards latitudes perceived as lenient, “undermining the capacity of people to receive them. country of transit and reception of migrants that despair pushes towards the unknown ”. A phenomenon not unknown at our level to which the Kingdom is trying to remedy this strategy.
A strategy whose orientations focus on the involvement of users in the participatory management of forests in order to achieve the desired results, and the adoption of a sustainable approach while respecting the red lines of the productive capacities of forests. The strategy aims to change the way people look at forests in order to integrate the social issue into this model, to mobilize productive potentials in partnership with the private sector and to preserve the natural heritage through a network of model spaces. .
The strategy set ambitious goals for the year 2030, including afforestation of 50,000 to 100,000 hectares and the provision of more than 500 incentives to intervene with the population, at the rate of one activator for each group of forest land. . These objectives also include reversing 30 years of degradation by covering more than 133,000 hectares of forest cover, contracting for the participatory protection of wooded areas by offering incentives of 1,000 dirhams per hectare and creating more than 27,500 direct jobs. additional in participatory forests, productive chains and ecotourism.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Forests estimates that this strategy will ensure annual income growth, with forest products and ecotourism products generating two to five billion dirhams. The implementation of this strategy will be entrusted to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests, the National Water and Forestry Agency, in addition to the Société des Parcs Nationaux which will be created in this effect.
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