Rapid risk assessment to harvesting of wild medicinal and aromatic plant species in Morocco for conservation and sustainable management purposes

Abstract

The increased demand for natural products from wild aromatic and medicinal plants has stimulated several research projects focusing on phytochemistry, ethnobotany, pharmacognosy and many other sub-disciplines related to medicine and pharmacy or cosmetology and chemical industry in general. Morocco is one of the richest Mediterranean countries whose flora is well known and many of its plant resources and products very demanded by consumers and manufacturers but there is an urgent need to deal with wild medicinal and aromatic plants namely found on public lands. In this study, we attempt to identify and assess the wild species to overharvesting especially those in forest lands and then identify priority ones. A rapid vulnerability assessment approach was applied to 182 species inventoried referring to its biological, ecological and chorological criteria then combined to trade data. We obtained three groups of MAP species depending on its vulnerability ranked from high to very low vulnerability and their availability at national level. A list of 25 priority species was sorted on its economic value for export and then only the most representative ones within each region was identified to analyze its corresponding actions. These insights could be applied to improve the conservation policies and guide the sustainable management and economic valuation plans to implement the Moroccan Medicinal and aromatic plants strategy.