Sustainable Management and Conservation of Forest Ecosystems

The forest ecosystems of Morocco present a great diversity shaped by the interactions between biotic and abiotic factors. Their management has moved from a traditional community system to a productivist model established during the French Protectorate and today ensured by the Moroccan Water and Forests administration. This model has generalized the regular high forest and simple coppice, whose prolonged application has reduced the ecological resilience of stands in the face of growing climatic and biotic disturbances. Moreover, since the 1990s, a paradigm shift has been occurring in Europe, favoring other models such as irregular high forest and continuous cover forestry, which present increased resilience and support superior structural biodiversity. In Morocco, and in the context of climate change, their application requires the integration of three dimensions: control of grazing pressure to secure natural regeneration, human development at the level of forest territories, and adoption of adaptive management with scientific monitoring.