Country Focus: Morocco 



Dr. Moulay YoussefAlaoui' , Coordinator of the recently concluded 



wildlife project on wildlife in Morocco in a virtual conversation with 



Nature & Faune. Dr. Alaoui is also an avid reader of Nature & Faune. 



Morocco has just concluded successfully, an interesting wildlife project supported by Czechoslovakia 

 Republic and executed by Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As fallouts 

 from the program, Morocco issued a number of technical reports and awareness raising documents. 

 Nature & Faune carried out an email interview with Dr. Moulay YoussefAlaoui, forestry and wildlife 

 practitioner in Morocco asking him about the country's experience in putting back wildlife into 

 forestry. 



->r/ï j>w Î -r, il £:.;».„•« sïij. Nature & Faune: Do you think wildlife is taken 



into account in forest management in Morocco? If 

 yes, what practical steps has Morocco taken to 

 realize this objective? To provide our readers 

 insights of the situation in Morocco, please outline 

 the way wildlife was integrated in forest 

 management. Also address, among other factors, 

 the institutional, legal and policy arrangements that 

 were put in place to facilitate the integration of 

 wildlife issues into forestry management in your 

 country 



Moulay Youssef Alaoui: For many years in 

 Morocco, wildlife was never taken into account in 

 the management of forests. The first Law on 

 natural resources conservation (1917) dealt only 

 with forest conservation. The achievements of the 

 Forestry Adminisfration have been remarkable 

 throughout its history as far as forest management, 

 reforestation and erosion confrol are concerned, on 

 the contrary, wildlife management has been rather 

 deficient. Thus, several wildlife species are either 

 extinct or near extinction. The resources made 

 available to the Wildlife and Nature protection 

 Division (of which I was the Director from 1980 to 

 1990) have always been insufficient. It represented 10% of the budget allocated to the Forestry 

 Department. More than 70% of the budget was allocated to the Reforestation and Erosion confrol 

 Division - Service de la D.R.S (Service for soil protection and restoration). 



On a positive note, a law on policing wildlife was promulgated in 1923 and its decrees facilitated the 

 protection of rare species and laid the foundation for the management of wild animals. Thus, hunting 

 days were reduced to 2 or 3 per week depending on the species and with a quota for each species. This 

 quota, now termed PMA (maximum authorized capture) was established both for sedentary and 

 migratory game. It is based on the estimated populations of different species in the absence of acciirate 

 census. Unfortunately, the provisions made for a rational management of wildlife would not stop the 

 inevitable decline of several species and the extinction of some, even though they have been listed as 

 protected species since the 1960s (barbary sheep. Dama gazelles, Dorcas Gazelles, Cuvier's Gazelles, 

 hyenas, lynx, panther, etc.) 



Moulay YoussefAlaoui 



Moulay Youssef ALAOUI, B.P. 8154 Rabat Nations unies. Rabat, M OROCCO. 

 Courrier électronique: myyou ssefalaoui@yahoo.fr 



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Nature & Faune Vol. 23, Issue 1 



59 



