La forêt d’Arganier : quelle gestion pour quelle ressource ?

Abstract

Moroccan argan forests are located in the southwest of the country and cover nearly 800,000 hectares. Like many other forests in the kingdom, the argan forests are faced with major decline and renewal problems, particularly the south-western part. Five major causes of degradation have been identified: population increase and consequent urbanisation, the development of irrigated agriculture, over-utilisation as fuelwood, excessive grazing both by goat and sheep herds belonging to sedentary populations and camel herds that represent significant capital for their transhumant owners. The article shows that the source of the latter three causes of degradation resides in a highly conflictual situation that exists between three groups of players: the forestry administration, the nomadic stockbreeders and the sedentary agropastoralists. It relies on the French school’s theory of social representations to demonstrate that the conflict is connected with divergent world views between those categories of actors. To end, the author pleads in favour of setting up a process of mediation and of information dissemination that would bring the tension between the social groups down and hence lessen the impact of overuse of fuelwood and of overgrazing on the ecosystem