Sehoul, Morocco

Contact the Sehoul study site team

2010-11-25T11:20:41Z

Institute full name:	UNESCO-GN Chair, Faculty of Human Sciences, University Mohammed V-Agdal, Rabat, Morocco
Institute acronym:	UNGN
Institute profile:	The Unesco-GN Chair on “Management of the Environment and Sustainable Development”, created on 1996 aims to promote an integrated system of research, education, information and documentation in the field of sustainable development. The global theme is oriented in the field of sustainable development of rural areas, with the purpose of developing the tools for self development of local communities. This programme studies also the changes in land cover and use, the trends in land management’s policy and the perception-response of the key actors towards the changes, related both to climatic variability and to human policy. The team of the Chair has been working in the field of land degradation and erosion, runoff, socio-economic features and the hydrological effects in the context of two European programmes, Medchange and Climed.
Website	http://www.um5.ac.ma/um5r/
Address	Chaire UNESCO-GN "Gestion de l'Environnement et Développement Durable" BP 1040, Rabat, Agdal Tél. 212 37 771893/73 Fax 212 37 772068 Email: laouina@menara.ma
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Involved personnel

Name	Contact details	Key qualifications	Photo
Laouina Abdellah	Fax : +212 37 772068 laouina@menara.ma	A Geographer in the field of land resources survey and dynamic processes gathering and works on human impact on soil degradation, analysing human practices and the effect of the management policy.
Chaker Miloud	Fax : +212 37 772068 mchaker2@caramail.com	Geomorphologist: field observations and measurements in shrub areas and agricultural lands in semiarid and arid regtions, land degradation process and desertification in marginal area.
Machouri Nadia	Fax : +212 37 772068 nadachouri@yahoo.fr	Doctor on Pastoralism, specialist of the degradation of the cork oak forests of the coastal region of Morocco, in relation with over-grazing.

Study site location & description

2007-11-19T12:56:37Z

The Sehoul study site is located on the Sehoul Plateau, just east of the city of Rabat.

{mosgmap mapid=29|height=350px|zoomtype=small|showmaptype=true}

The area is located under sub-humid to semi-arid conditions; it is on the border of a cork oak forest, which means a quite stable environment. But, for many reasons, it is affected by desertification processes:

The cork oak forest is in a poor condition, due to overgrazing, wood cutting, forest diseases and climate change impacts on regeneration.
The cities' growth and the need for space for activities and transport.
The increasing pressure over the natural resources, namely soil and water posed by more intense agriculture systems, which are adopted to answer to the proximity of the Rabal-Salé urban market needs.
The soil is a made of a thick sandy leached horizon, which corresponds to old dunes developed in the region during a dry period of the upper Pleistocene; the humid conditions of the Holocene permitted the forest growth and the surface stabilisation; the current retreat of the forest creates again conditions for desertification, with the appearance of local dunes in the places affected.
The deficit of water and the competition between agriculture, urbanization and tourism on this resource.

More details ... read the full study site description and an overview of all sites
	Read the full study site description
»Comparative overview of all study sites

Stakeholders and their sustainability goals

2011-11-08T14:07:53Z

The area and people
Marginal land with much degradation, and with poor inhabitants.

Study site stakeholder workshops
Farmers, local government, local centre for agricultural advice, scientists.

Stakeholder groups
Government/Project staff

National: The engineers and technicians responsible of the services of agriculture and forest.
Local: technicians of the same services.

Public administration

Agriculture and livestock: Provincial Direction of Agriculture “DPA”
Forestry : Regional Direction of Forests “DREF”
Water: Hydraulic basin Agency of the Bouregreg
Environment: no local representation.The elected municipality council
The local power-administration of the commune

Research Centres and Universities

Mohammed V University and other schools of engineers

NGOs

NGOs are more related to cultural activities, not really involved in development

Land users

Farmers with a high diversity of land use, and ownership

More details ...

»Stakeholders & their sustainability goals - overview

Drivers, policies and laws

2011-11-08T14:14:36Z

The reasons for desertification and land degradation occurring can be environmental (for example due to the climate or soil conditions), economic, due to the actions of people or, most often, due to a combination of factors. The resulting degradation may be temporary or permanent.

To help understand this complex picture it can be helpful to think in terms the dominant socio-economic and environmental forces that are driving the process of land degradation. These place pressures on the land which have particular impacts. Human society may have already made responses to those impacts, or may have knowledge about how they could respond. Decisions about which responses to make may also be governed by a range of international, national or local policy regulations and agreements.

In the Sehoul study site, the same stakeholder workshop and questionnaires that were used to identify existing and potential response strategies (»Identifying strategies: Stakeholder workshop 1) also discussed and identified these driving forces; pressures; impacts; and the policy and regulation environment. This information was then used to inform the choice of »Field experiments and the scenarios used in »Simulated biophysical impact of remediation strategies and their financial viability.

Select main driver

Socio-economic drivers
Environmental drivers
Pressures
Impacts
Responses
Policies

More details ...

»Drivers and policy context for all study sites

Gender-related issues

2011-03-03T13:51:06Z

More details ... download the poster
	Gender-related issues: Sehoul [67 kB]

Land degradation and conservation maps

2009-06-08T12:57:33Z

The WOCAT tool for mapping land degradation and sustainable land management has been used in the Sehoul study site. Using the tool, an interdisciplinary team of specialists has recorded observations of land degradation, sustainable land management and recommendations for further prevention or mitigation on a land use base map.

Select map type

Comments

Map version: 4Oct11

More details ...

»Assessment and mapping methodology; summary results from all study sites

Desertification risk assessment maps

2011-11-08T14:15:14Z

Source: extracted from Karavitis, C. Kosmas, C. et al. (submitted article) An expert system towards assessing desertification risk using indicators. Environmental Management

The procedure of calculation of Desertification Risk Index (DRI) in the Sehoul study sites started with the identification of the desertification process. These were found to be:

water erosion in forests,
water erosion in agricultural areas and
water erosion in pastures & shrubs.

For these processes, the Desertification Risk Assessment Tool needed data to calculate 161 indicators in 11 map units. This is because only the dominant degradation process is evaluated in each map unit; the number of indicators that is needed therefore differs between map units (Table 1). By using the WOCAT database, the required indicators were estimated and used as input to the Assessment Tool. Table 2 shows an example of the desertification risk calculation for Map Unit 3 (agriculture).


Table 1. Desertification risk calculation per Map Unit	Table 2. Desertification risk calculation for Map Unit 3 (agriculture)

The same procedure was repeated for all the other map units in the Sehoul study site and the DRI values calculated are shown in Table 1 and Map 1.


Map 1: Desertification risk index (DRI)	Map 2: Degree of land degradation (as assessed using the WOCAT mapping method)

The DRI map was compared with the WOCAT QM of the same area (Map 2). It was observed that even though the DRI and the WOCAT QM approaches produced maps sharing elements of a common data base, completely different calculation procedures have been applied (the RDI uses equations independently developed from another dataset and WOCAT has its own distinct methodology). When the two maps are compared, it can be seen that the rate of degradation and the effectiveness of measures correspond closely to the DRI values, with the highest rate of degradation and the lowest measures effectiveness matching up to the highest values of DRI.

More details ... about the use of the Desertification Risk Assessment Tool to calculate the Desertification Risk Index (DRI)

»Using the Desertification Risk Assessment Tool

Evaluating the desertification risk assessment tool with local experimental results

2013-09-30T12:13:38Z

Author: Victor Jetten

Introduction

The north west of Morocco has areas with extensive gullying of the agricultural lands. High pressure agriculture and overgrazing, combined with occasional heavy rainfall, causes severe land degradation. An additional problem is sedimentation in the drink water reservoirs downstream. For farmers in the area, annual crops for food production and livestock for immediate income is vital. The area characterized by a strong variation in seasonal rainfall from year to year. Ploughing is done at the first rains after September and with sufficient rainfall there will be a moderate harvest in February (mostly Wheat and Barley). If the crop fails it is used for fodder. For farmers in the area, annual rainfed crops for food production and livestock for immediate income is vital. There are no additional water sources and water conservation measures could help in this situation.

Desertification indices
The first area is abandoned and has heavy gully incision but analysis with high resolution remote sensing of gully change actually sows that the current erosion is not so high. This is well reflected in the erosion risk index of 2.92 (moderate risk). Vegetation cover is annual herbs and grasses. Water stress is seen as no risk (1.29) and there is a low risk of over grazing (2.38). The technique of gully stabilization with planting of Atriplex bushes and fencing cannot be tested directly but the added effect of an increase in cover and biomass can be simulated, while there is an assumed moderately effective capturing of runoff. Implementing this leads to a water erosion risk of 2.49 (low risk). Overgrazing reduces to low risk (1.62).

The second technique is minimum tillage on a rainfed cereal producing field on stony shallow soils. The slope angle is the same (20%). Under unmitigated circumstances the water erosion risk is moderate (2.78), a low overgrazing risk (2.38) and no water stress risk (1.29). Applying minimum tillage slightly lowers the erosion risk (still moderate: 2.56) and lowers also the water stress (1.17) and overgrazing risk (2.12).


Abandoned land (herbs/grass) on steep gullied slopes unmitigated	Implementing gully control by planting bushes and fencing

Cereals on steep slopes, unmitigated	Cereals, minimum tillage

Conclusions
The desertification risk assessment tool correctly classifies the risk levels of water erosion and overgrazing, but seems to underestimate the water stress risk (farmers have a difficult time gaining sufficient yield from rainfed agriculture in the area). The results are in line with the experimental results. Also when implementing the techniques the results are adequate although less pronounced than the experimental results. The techniques have to be translated to a change in primary variables first for this to happen (e.g. fencing means an increase in cover).

More details ... general conclusions and results from other study sites

»Evaluating the Desertification Risk Assessment Tool with experimental results

Identifying strategies: Stakeholder Workshop 1

2008-04-24T13:59:31Z

A report on the results of the workshop "Land degradation and desertification - existing and potential prevention and mitigation strategies" held in Sehoul, Morocco from 19-21 June 2007

Field work and workshops on "existing and potential mitigation strategies against land degradation" were conducted with the objectives of sharing experience on current and potential problems and solutions regarding land degradation and desertification.

The aims are:

to identify existing and new strategies to prevent or mitigate land degradation and desertification.

to select a set of these identified strategies for further evaluation and documentation with the WOCAT methodology

to experiment with these strategies in some fields and make a follow-up with some required techniques of measurement.

The overall objective is to be able, after some years of experimentation to propose successful strategies for extension and improvement. The field work programmed is the monitoring of these techniques and approaches in order to determine their efficiency, both in terms of land degradation mitigation, social benefits and farm yield increase.

Main problems of degradation in the region

	1. Inside the forest, the poor social situation of the population explains the rapid retreat and clearing of the vegetation cover, the non-regeneration of cork oak and the multiplication of poor species.
	2. In the pastures, located on steep slopes, over-grazing leads to the degradation of the vegetation cover to the reduction of palatable species and to the development of rills and gullies.
	3. In the cultivated area, the problems are more related to techniques of land use that are not adapted to the climate, to the weak soils and to the slope gradients
	a. The decrease of soil moisture (due to the delayed and reduced precipitation in autumn or the early dryness in spring) leads to a reduction in the grain yield and in the biomass and represents an important factor of crisis both for agriculture and livestock.
	b. The concentration, in some years, of extreme events with heavy rain during autumn on land which is still completely bare, produce very important runoff and soil erosion c. The decrease of the piezometric level, due to over- exploitation of wells and to the increase of runoff in the fields.

Potential strategies

Some new techniques introduced during the last decades of the 20th centruy by some farmers were identified by the stakeholders who participated in the field interviews and the workshop, as potential strategies for a water and soil conservation approach.

Cork Oak Forests

Assisted cork oak plantation as a strategy for the sustainability of the forest.

Expected impacts

5 x increase in soil humidity
2 x increase in percentage surface cover
a reduction in soil compaction to half
indicators of runoff to become rarely observed
recovery of rare cork oak ecosystem species.

Degraded lands converted to pasture

The introduction of a fodder cultivation (lupin) in the crop rotation.

Expected impacts

soil regeneration
good plant cover of the soil, increased infiltration, reduced overland flow
improved fodder yield
improved income

Expected constraints

high cost of seed

Rainfed annual agriculture

Rotation of annual cultivations.

Expected impacts

farm diversification
maintenance of soil fertility
improved income
food security
diversification of nutrition

Expected constraints

multiplicity of ploughing
risk of erosion on soil prepared for spring cultivation
high use of machinery

Rainfed cultivations associated with fruit tree plantations

Rainfed fruit tree poantations in lines separated by stripsof cereals or beans.

Expected impacts

land protection
improved income
new methods and capacity building
change of free grazing to intensive breeding

Expected constraints

technical survey and maintenance
cost of initial investment
conflict with grazing which gives an immediate income

More details ... download the full report and poster and see results and general conclusions from other study sites
	WP3.1 Stakeholder Workshop 1: Morocco (report) (4.05 MB)
	WP3.1 Stakeholder Workshop 1: Morocco (results poster) (1.69 MB)
»Identifying strategies: Stakeholder Workshop 1 methodology and summary results from all study sites

Evaluating strategies: technologies and approaches documented

2011-02-22T13:46:21Z

Stakeholder Workshop 1 identified a number of existing or potential strategies to combat desertification and land degradation in the Marmora study site. In the months following the workshop these strategies (technologies or approaches) were documented and evaluated in a structured and standardised way and their descriptions were entered in the WOCAT Technologies and Approaches databases in order to share the information with other DESIRE sites as well as globally.

For details of all Technologies and Approaches documented in the WOCAT Database (from the DESIRE study sites and from other sites worldwide), see

For those relating to this study site, click on the Name of technology or Name of approach to go directly to the descriptions in the database.

WOCAT Technologies Database

Country	Code	Name of technology	Author
Morocco	MOR12	»Crop rotation: cereals / fodder legumes (lupin) »Rotation culturale: céréales/légumineuses fourragères (lupin)	Al karkouri Jamal, Chaire Unesco Environnement. Université Mohamed V. Faculté des Lettres et de Sciences humaines
Morocco	MOR13	»Assisted cork oak regeneration »Régénération assistée de chêne-liège	Chaker Miloud, Université Med V, FLSH, Rabat
Morocco	MOR14	»Olive tree plantations with intercropping »Plantations d'olivier avec cultures intercalaires	Nafaa Rachida, Université Med V-Agdal, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Chaire Unesco-GN

WOCAT Approaches Database

Country	Code	Name of approach	Author
Morocco	MOR11	»Pratique individuelle de Rotation culturale (céréales/légumineuses alimentaires ou fourragères) soutenue par le Centre de Travaux Agricole	Al Karkouri Jamal, Chaire Unesco Environnement. Université Mohamed V. Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences humaines
Morocco	MOR13	»Régénération assistée du chêne liège	Chaker Miloud, Faculté des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Département de Géographie
Morocco	MOR14	»Development of rainfed agriculture »Mise en valeur des terres en Bour	Nafaa Rachida, Université Mohammed V Agdal, Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines, Chaire Unesco-GN