MedWetCoast - MOROCCO

SELECTED PROJECT ACTIVITIES/RESULTS

• The Government of Morocco designated 20 new Ramsar sites in 2005 including the mouth of the Moulouya, one of the MedWetCoast sites . The list includes a great variety of wetland types and includes areas in all parts of the country. Morocco now has 24 Wetlands of International Importance covering a surface area of 272,010 hectares.
• A series of focus groups and interviews held between MWC Morocco and local communities in the sites identified three main problems - lack of drinking water, crop damage by wild boar and unemployment.
• A qualitative study of tourism at the Moulouya site sought to understand visitor motivation. The visitors' responses helped define what measures were needed to ensure sensible economic management of the area while at the same time preserving its rich ecological heritage.
• To encourage participative management of the sites MWC has been discussing ecotourism development and awareness-raising with representatives of local communities and conservation NGOs. Training sessions and study travel have also been used to provide participative management tools and methods appropriate for protected areas.
• The project is working with the Centre regional d'Investissement, a public body responsible for authorizing developments, to make sure that protected area status is taken into account in planning. MWC is also cooperating with a private company running Fadesa, a major tourism complex, over the construction of an environmental education center.
• The project has signed an MOU with Oujida University for monitoring the sites at Nador, Moulouya and Beni Snassen.
• The project has been successful in obtaining action from the Governor who has used his powers to ban harmful activities, such jet-skiing, sand extraction and illegal hunting, from the sites and has limited public access. Two new eco-guards have already been recruited and safeguarding the sites will be reinforced by seasonal recruitment of extra guards.
  
  Increasing the number of wardens at all sites has resulted in better visitor control as well as decreased poaching and increased number of fines for violators.
• Visitors to Moulouya and the nearby Saidia beach now find organized parking, signposting and dustbins, with eco-guards at hand to enforce regulations and provide information to visitors. To support these measures, MWCMorocco has published posters and brochures with the central message 'My life is nature, I like it, I respect it' in French and Arabic.
• An enclosed protective area for the moufflon (an endangered wild sheep species) has been increased from 8 to 100 ha).
• The Cellule Littoral was created within the Ministry of Physical Planning, Water and Environment in 2003 as a result of the work of MWC Morocco. The Cellule Littoral liaises with other government departments concerned with coastline problems and supports institutional and policy making for ICZM. It has worked on the preparation of a draft coastal law.
• The Cellule Littoral meets regularly and publishes a newsletter. One of its recent accomplishments was the organisation of "journée sur le littoral" in Skhirat in March 2005 when nearly 200 people gathered to hear a presentation on the national strategy for the coastline. 'Cellule Littoral' also organized a national conference on ICZM (Rabat, March 2000).
• MWC Morocco has developed an information kit to sensitize institutional decision makers and journalists to the values of the wetlands and coastal areas. The kit contains factsheets for each pilot site and two brochures, one explaining the objectives of the project, and the other providing the ecological, economic and social arguments for the creation of protected areas. The kit, launched in November 2005, is in Arabic and French.
• To celebrate World Environment Day 2005 (June 5), MWC Morocco, with the support of local NGOs, organized a trip for 120 children to the Moulouya site. Several journalists covered the event, which followed a public awareness campaign in nine local schools. An information booklet on bird protection was distributed.
• A dune erosion study was conducted in January 2004 at the Moulouya, Nador and Le Cap des Trois Fourches sites . The study was designed to explore methods of rejuvenating the dunes and find ways of avoiding dune erosion in future constructions or developments.
• A capacity-building programme for local NGOs and associations was launched at the end of 2003. The programme helped form a pool of 16 Moroccan trainers, each of whom works with one or two NGOs. NGO activities include setting up a wetlands database; producing a programme and training manual; forming associative networks of specialists, teachers and representatives of the local communities; and supporting microprojects at the sites.

Meetings

• Meeting with the Ministry of the Environment and The National Forestry Commission (Rabat, March 2005)
• Three meetings of the Steering Committee
• A Management Plan Peer Review regional workshop was held in Rabat (June, 2005)

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