Visiting the sand dunes in the Sahara is part of most trips to Morocco. Usually this involves a long drive from Fez, across the Middle Atlas and down to Erg Chebi. Well, according to some reports, in the future you might not have to travel so far too see them, as they are on the move.
In an interesting article in the Mail & Guardian Online, (Sand dunes creep up on Morocco's palm trees) Abderrahim El Ouali reports a bleak outlook for the locals.
Here is an extract:
Visitors to Morocco have often been tempted by pictures with the proverbial palm tree somewhere in the frame. But fewer and fewer of these trees are now around, and at this rate of decline the visitors of the future might not find any at all.
The picture is changing; it is now of the Sahara desert advancing into once-green stretches. More than 22 000ha of arable land disappear under the desert every year now in Morocco, according to official figures.
Desertification is now threatening all of the country. The Ministry of the Environment has said that almost 93% of Morocco is affected by aridity.
Date palms are the most ravaged by desertification. At the end of the 19th century Morocco had an estimated 15-million date palms, according to a study by geographer Ahmed Harrak. That number has now slipped to 4,5-million.
In losing date palms the local population "loses the main source of income, and is consequently forced to abandon the land and leave", says M Achlif, a member of the independent Moroccan Association for Development and Solidarity.
Many Moroccans believe they can do little because the main causes of advancing desertification appear to be natural. "North Africa is mostly an arid or semi-arid region," geographer Bouazza Zahir says. "For every 1 000 square kilometres, Morocco has 700 square kilometres of arid land."
Land could now be lapsing into arid conditions more rapidly as sources of water are getting reduced, Zahir said.
Read the full story here. Morocco's Sand Dunes.
Tags: Morocco Fes, Maghreb news
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