Interview with Mohammed Issoual, regional director of water and forests in the High Atlas
Mohammed Issoual: Sustainable tourism is receiving special attention from international and national organizations such as the United Nations Environment Program and the World Tourism Organization. In Morocco and more particularly in the High Atlas, to celebrate this year, the Regional Directorate of Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification of the High Atlas (DREFLCD/HA) is planning awareness-raising activities and workshops around the ecotourism potential of the Toubkal National Park (PNTb). It was recently awarded an award at the Morocco Sustainable Tourism Trophies in the “Sustainable Territory” category, with its various products (ecomuseum, green circuit, development of the Oukaimden site as a pilot site for sustainable tourism). All while emphasizing the fragility of these natural resources with high heritage value which must be preserved and valued and make mountain tourism community tourism and a niche for improving the socio-economic conditions of local populations.
What are the assets offered by the Toubkal National Park in terms of ecotourism and sustainable development?
The ecotourism offer at the park level concerns the discovery of natural spaces and cultural heritage, as well as market and non-market services, including the sale of local products and crafts.
Leisure activities and activities of particular interest, such as hiking, skiing, but also photography, observation of fauna and flora are also there. This type of ecologically sustainable practice can generate significant income locally and would encourage the local population to value the region’s fauna and flora. Such behavior would thus generate net benefits for environmental protection.
In this sense, we have a strategy that integrates societal and environmental responsibility to meet ecological criteria and the development of income-generating niches for local populations, in accordance with the directives of the ten-year plan of the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification 2015-2024.
Our objective is to ensure that the Marrakech-Safi region is a model to follow in terms of sustainable rural development, and in particular mountain development, which can mitigate the negative repercussions on natural and cultural resources, and promote the positive impacts of nature tourism. To achieve this, we have developed a sustainable tourism development plan to position Toubkal National Park as an essential tourism management and development partner in our region.
In the same context of discovering the spaces, a mobile application will soon be made available to visitors.
The first of its kind in Moroccan national parks, this application will accompany the tourist in their visit to the park. And for those preferring virtual tours, an interactive section will soon be available on the PNTb website (www.parc-national-toubkal.ma).
What about the steps intended to promote sustainable and responsible tourism in the High Atlas?
Tourism in the High Atlas and more especially in the Toubkal National Park could transform its volume of tourists into something more profitable. The promotion of sustainable tourism can create wealth for the local population because it can develop tourist offers in relation to the hinterland of Marrakech while preserving its landscapes, its wealth and its rusticity which make up a large part of its attractiveness.
Moreover, the new overall planning and management framework of the PNTb is designed to frame the various development and planning activities to be undertaken in this protected area with a view to its development and sustainable management.
Tell us about the development plan that this park benefits from…
20 years after the first Development and Management Plan (PAG) of the Toubkal National Park, our management launched a study in March 2016, in application of Law No. 22-07 relating to protected areas, to establish a new global framework for the development and management of the PNTb. This future PAG is intended to be a technical tool for all stakeholders on this site.
Indeed, the first part of this study consists of drawing up an inventory and analyzing the scope of intervention and the surrounding territory. A work which was completed on January 26, 2017 by the organization of a scientific workshop to prioritize intervention priorities with practical recommendations aimed at the sustainable management of natural and cultural resources and the preservation of the environment taking into account the constraints and potential of the park.
How is sustainable tourism evolving in Morocco?
We qualify sustainable tourism, and in particular ecotourism, as a globalizing activity. To speak of sustainable tourism is to evoke a holistic concept and, it is in this perspective, particularly in the socio-economic field that it seems urgent that Morocco and in particular the High Atlas take into account all the environmental and societal responsibility which must accompany the emergence of such an approach.
This is why sustainable tourism under the prism of sustainable development is conceived as a concept, an attitude, a behavior. The High Commission for Water, Forests and the Fight against Desertification supports sustainable tourism and encourages the collaborative economy, which increases the chances of the emergence of income-generating projects in national parks which effectively contribute to improving the socio-economic conditions of populations using the natural resources of protected areas.
To conclude, I would like to point out that the High Atlas has great potential for sustainable tourism around very fragile wealth, with high added value. I believe more in concerted management for the development and preservation of natural resources. The management policy of the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification is focused on human beings and whose credo is above all the direct redistribution of benefits to the local population and the improvement of their daily lives to alleviate the pressure on natural resources whose decline is irreversible and can lead to an alteration of the ecosystem balances of this protected area with high heritage value.
source http://jourhui.ma
