The repercussions of the issue of “the return of nomadic shepherds” to certain provinces in the Souss-Massa region are still the talk of the population and local associational activities, especially after “the frequency of incidents of attacks and unjust grazing affecting the crops of the local population” in districts belonging, in particular, to the provinces of Tiznit and Chtouka Ait Baha.
The “Network of Associations of the Argan Biosphere Reserve” (RARBA) reaffirmed, in a statement issued at the end of this week, “its firm positions regarding the sustainability of natural resources in the field of argan, by adopting rational measures to preserve our national wealth represented by the argan tree, which is considered a global human heritage.” “, calling for “accelerating the issuance of the regional plan for pastures and implementing the requirements of the Grazing and Transhumance Law No. 13/113.”
The “Tiznit Coordination Committee” statement to the same network included “a call on various local actors (civil society, elected officials…) to join forces to continue confronting overgrazing and the destruction of the Argan Forest.”
According to the information obtained by the aforementioned network (and seen by Hespress newspaper), from several civil, elected, and parliamentary actors in the region, “the problem of overgrazing and random travel is still continuing, forming a time bomb, due to the authorities’ evasion of enforcing the law,” according to a statement by the associational network that said it intervened. After “the frequency of complaints by local actors, especially what is currently happening to the ‘Ait Ahmed Arbaa’ group (Tiznit province), and before that the Sahel group (since 2011) and the ‘Ameln’ group (April 18, 2020).”
The network “strongly denounced” the “physical attacks on their property and water and living resources by nomadic herders” to which residents of a group of districts are exposed, and is surprised by “the authorities’ tolerance of the growing phenomenon of nomadic herders’ movement without respecting Law 13.113 (especially movement permits).”
The network called on the regional committee and the regional committee for pastures to “take urgent measures to save humans and biological diversity in the Arbaa Ait Ahmed community, especially grazing in the central area of the biosphere reserve and its vicinity, which contains an endemic plant (dragonier) and constitutes a biological heritage of environmental and scientific importance.” “.
The same authority noted that “biosphere reserves are a field that aims to reconcile the protection of natural and cultural diversity with economic and social development, for the well-being of the local population within a framework of sustainable and rational management of natural resources,” pointing to its continuation “of the mutual approach it adopts in dealing with the environmental issues of the protected area.” The biosphere of the Arkan regions through its memorandum addressed to various officials (in 2018 and 2021), in order to preserve our forest area, especially solving the problem of overgrazing and random migration in several groups in the region, in violation of legal controls.”
It is noteworthy that the network of associations for the protection of the biosphere of Arganera (Réseau des Associations de la Réserve de Biosphère Arganeraie) recalled in its latest statement a number of previous statements about the same problem “on November 1, 2011, after the invasion of the Sahel community by nomads, and November 15, 2018 on the occasion of the national symposium on the role of society.” Al-Madani on the governance of the management of the Biosphere Reserve, and February 17, 2019 on the occasion of the “Akal March” in Rabat, and the communication issued on June 17, 2020 on the occasion of the World Desertification Day, with proposals addressed to the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests on July 21, 2020 regarding improving the framework The law for the Argan Forest sector, and the memorandum addressed to the President of the Souss-Massa region dated April 26, 2021.”
This interaction comes after the “Akal Coordination for Defending the Residents’ Right to Land and Wealth” condemned the continuation of this problem in a number of regions of the Souss-Massa region, and its “threat to social peace,” confirming that it had received “reports from a number of regions that have been targeted by nomadic herders with large herds that violate Residents’ lands and crops, without action from the authorities to stop these acts of sabotage that affect local lands and property.”
The issue also witnessed parliamentary interaction from Nozha Abakrim, a representative of the Socialist Union, who conveyed the developments of this issue to Parliament, questioning in writing the Minister of Energy Transition and Sustainable Development, Leila Benali, on the subject of “the immediate measures that are expected to be taken to put an end to the attack and the expansion of the herders.” Nomads in the areas of living of the inhabitants of Adrar in the Arbaa Ait Ahmed community and the entire district of the Tiznit province, in addition to the measures expected to be taken to protect the argan trees in the region from attacks by nomadic herders.”