Morocco’s forests are one of the national natural treasures and they strongly contribute to the national economy. Rural communities’ incomes are very often based only on forest production and most of the rural population depend on forests for their livelihood.
This resource covers a surface of around 9,000,000 ha (Ministère chargée des Eaux et Forets, 1999) and accomplishes several functions: production (wood, cork and., grazing), protection (preservation of water, soils, plants, wildlife and climate) and recreation (hunting, fishing and trekking) only to mention the most important ones.
Since the beginning of this century, like in other countries, it was noticed that forest destruction had been speeded up; in Morocco it was mainly due to human activities. Forest destruction also caused serious impacts such as soil erosion, droughts, disrupt of natural regeneration, and the appearance of pests due to a break in the ecological balance, so causing their protection to be an urgent need.
The first step to improve this situation was to create the "Direction des Eaux et Forets" and the "Bureaux pour la Conservation du Soles" in 1914 in order to apply the national forest policy and to promote the conservation of natural forests and the sustainable development of managed forestry resources. This institute was transformed into the "Ministère chargée des Eaux et Forets" in 1997; its regional directions are divided into provincial offices, each of them has infrastructures and human resources in order to manage all forest land under their jurisdiction.
Activities and programs of this public organism are located in the framework of the national plans for forest policy: national forest plan, national plan against desertification, afforestation framework plan, national watershed management plan, protected area framework plan.
The targets of theses plans can be summarised as follows:
The forest of Ben Slimane, whose boundaries were delimited by the forest administration in 1916 has always represented an important source of food for animals especially in the dry seasons (Ministere de l’agriculture et de la mise en valeur agricole-Direction regionale des eaux et forets nord-ouest de Kenitra, 1998). The first activities in this forest began in 1914 with the cutting of wounded trees and the barking of the trees that reached exploitation size. After the fires, in 1928, 1929, and 1934, the forest office carried out coppice cuts in the affected areas.
For a better management a plan was conceived in 1938 to put regulations on cork and wood exploitation in order to ensure the natural regeneration of the forest. This plan was subsequently revised in 1948 and 1968 and its main actions were the following ones:
In spite of these actions, the actual conditions of the forest show that social aspects prevail on technical ones: overgrazing, illegal cuts, wood collection, fires etc., have weakened the forest stands and caused a degradation of the natural equilibrium, which is extremely difficult to recover.
In the present situation Quercus suber and Tetraclinis articulata, are the principal species that compose the natural vegetation in our study area.
Quercus suber is dominant and constitute mixed plant groups, rarely pure but only in small areas. It is localised mainly in flat areas in the northern part, especially where soils are siliceous, clayey-silty and wet. Quercus suber stands are heterogeneous in vigour and density and most of them are in poor sanitary condition. Some trees are standing dead, while others suffer from branch drying.
Thuya (Tetraclinis articulata) has a plastic constitution and it is rustic so that it is able to grow on several geologic substrata and on thin and dry soils. In our study area it is localised on the dry slopes along the Oued Cherrat. Population vigour is variable: in lower parts of the slopes, it is relatively good, with long stems while in the steeper upper slopes, where soils are shallow, conditions are worse. In presence of clay layers, there is a progressive reduction of Tetraclinis and a re-colonisation of secondary species, mainly Olea europea.
The results of the dendrometric inventories carried out in the area show that most of Quercus suber population is young with a dimension lower than the production one (0.75m). They are characterised by a density of 478plants/ha, an average circumference of 46.85cm, and a surface cover of 7.31m2/ha.
The average volume is 3.66m3 in the timber forest, 0.5m3 for the cork oak used for reproduction and 0.6m3 in the forest utilised for cork collection.
Thuya population has an average diameter of 24.80cm, characterised by a very high density of 1280plants/ha, a surface cover of 6.42m2/ha and an average volume of 4.2 m3/ha.
To maintain this productivity and to improve the level of protection in the forest environment, the ancient management plan has been updated in 1998. Its main targets are (Ministere de l’agriculture et de la mise en valeur agricole-Direction regionale des eaux et forets nord-ouest de Kenitra, 1998):
To achieve these targets, taking into account the results of dendrometric, phyto-ecological and socio-economical inventories, the forest has been divided in four series:
The cork oak series includes four groups:
The thuya series is composed of an improving group on which no exploitation is forecast: it is destined only for erosion protection, to conserve genetic integrity of cork oak population, for grazing and collection of forest products. Artificial plantations series is composed of groups of eucalyptus and coniferous afforestations (Ministere de l’agriculture et de la mise en valeur agricole-Direction des eaux et forets et de la conservation des sols, 1993): the management plan of these populations is suggested by another plan written in 1993, created for local afforestations.
Touristic purpose series is made up of two different groups: permanent hunting reserves and ares destined for public reception.