• Home
• Welcome to Plantlife International
• International wild plants
• Important Plant Areas in international conservation
• IPA projects around the world
• Africa and Western Asia
• Morocco

Morocco

Nineteen IPAs have been identified in Morocco, from a preliminary list of 57 potentially eligible sites (15 classed as priority, 27 highly remarkable and 15 important) drawn from Sites of Biological and Ecological Interest.

Covering a total area of 710,850km2 in North-West Africa, Morocco lies between Africa and Europe. As a result, considerable genetic interchange has occurred giving rise to high species diversity. The four major mountain ranges - the Rif, the Middle Atlas, the High Atlas and the Anti-Atlas - form an important part of the relief of Morocco, occupying 15% of its land area .The climate is classed as Mediterranean and is influenced by both the Atlantic and the Sahara. Precipitation decreases from north to south and from west to east, being high in the mountain massifs, reaching 2,000mm in the Rif, but less than 150mm in the pre-Saharan and Saharan regions.

The vegetation consists mainly of forest and pre-forest ecosystems which include oak, fir, juniper, wild olive and cypress, esparto, wormwood, thorny xerophyte steppes and Saharan ecosystems (with acacias and chamaephytes). The Moroccan flora is particularly rich, with approximately 7,000 species, including an estimated 4,500 vascular plants. There are 951 national endemics (over 20% of the vascular plants) and some 500 local endemics (of restricted range) shared with Algeria, the Iberian Peninsula and even Mauritania and the Canary Islands. The rate of endemism is particularly high in the mountain areas, the mountains having provided isolated plant refuges during the ice ages.

Morocco has identified 160 sites of biological and ecological interest, all of which should soon be classed within the five categories of legally protected areas. There are currently 10 national parks.

Nineteen Important Plant Areas (IPAs) have been identified from a preliminary list of 57 potentially eligible sites (15 classed as priority, 27 highly remarkable and 15 important) drawn from Sites of Biological and Ecological Interest. Most of the IPAs are located in mountain areas, more than half of them at elevations above 2,500m, some reaching 4,000m. There are two coastal IPAs: Al Hoceima National Park and Maamora.

The predominant vegetation in most of the mountain IPAs is forest, sometimes degraded, with stands of Algerian oak, cork oak, holm oak, pine, cedar, fir, Tetraclinis and juniper. Above 3,000m, woody vegetation gives way to formations of thorny cushion-like xerophytes and meadows very rich in endemics. In the lowlands, Maamora boasts a potentially very extensive cork oak forest (130,000ha), whereas Al Hoceima National Park is mainly characterized by a wild, rocky coastline with cliffs rising out of the sea. Morocco’s IPAs are characterized by a particularly high number of national endemics and stenoendemics found only at a single site: there are 14 areas with more than 20 such species. The richest are Ifrane National Park (196), Toubkal National Park (164), Jbel Ayachi (75), and Jbel Bou-Naceur and Jbel Bou Iblane (92). Six IPAs are included within national parks. The others have not yet been awarded any special protection.

The main threats to Morocco’s IPAs are water stress, particularly an increase in drought periods; deforestation, which affects most of them; overgrazing; habitat fragmentation and isolation and the effects of tourism.

Coordinating organisations:

• Forest Research Centre (Rabat) and Scientific Institute of Rabat

Contacts:

• Mohammed Taleb
• Mohammed Fennane