Sacred sites are of conservation value because of their spiritual meaning, as cultural heritage and as remnants of near-natural biotopes in landscapes strongly transformed by man. The vegetation of sacred sites in Morocco was studied recently. Information about their number, spatial pattern or relief position is fragmentary. However, these parameters are important to evaluate their role as refuge for organisms and their representativeness of potential natural vegetation. Therefore, density and spatial pattern of sacred sites on the Tangier Peninsula in NW Morocco were studied based on records on topographic maps and by ground check. Their relief position was examined calculating a logistic regression model based on site-presences and random pseudo-absences. A ground check showed that around 67% of the existing sacred sites are documented in the topographic maps. They occur in the whole study area but are agglomerated around settlements. Although sacred sites occur with preference at elevated sites they can be found in almost all relief positions, thus offering the potential of supporting different types of climax vegetation (climatic climax and pedoclimax). Because of their abundance (around 29 sacred sites / 100 km2) and their distribution pattern they could serve as elements of a biotope network in degraded landscapes.
The vegetation and flora of 86 sacred sites (surroundings of tombs of local saints, cemeteries) in NW Morocco was studied to assess their conservation value for undisturbed Mediterranean evergreen forests and vulnerable plants. Habitats were mapped, based on life form, maximum height and cover value, and classified according to naturalness. Vascular plants were classified according to pre‐defined risk factors like stenochory or grazing sensitivity. Naturalness index and refugial value were calculated for each site. Only 20% of the mapped site area was closed forest. On many places, human impact had created a vegetation mosaic. Most of the vulnerable plants were mesophilous forest species or grazing sensitive taxa. Endemic species occurred only rarely. The occurrence of vulnerable plants and the naturalness of the vegetation were positively correlated. Sacred site extension had no significant effect on the number of vulnerable species. Results indicate a limited relevance of sacred sites in northern Morocco for the protection of intact forests and vulnerable plants. However, these localities can play an important role as stepping stones in agricultural landscapes. They protect plants, sensitive to opening of the tree layer, to deforestation and to intense grazing. Certain formerly widespread forest communities survived exclusively on sacred sites.
Sacred Natural Sites (SNS) are known to be refuges for near-natural forests in otherwise degraded landscapes. To evaluate the conservation status of the SNS in north-western Morocco, the study area comprising approximately 7.300km ² was subdivided into four ecoregions. In each ecoregion, two landscape sections with 36km ² each were selected. Within these landscape sections the vegetation of 86 SNS was mapped based on habitat types defined by the vertical structure of the vegetation, the composition of growth forms and the dominant species. The naturalness of the habitat types was then classified and the overall naturalness of the vegetation of the SNS assessed. In most cases, SNS carry vegetation mosaics with a wide range of naturalness. Nearnatural vegetation and semi-natural vegetation covers less than 50% of the surface of the SNS mapped, near-natural forests are restricted to certain ecoregions. In total, greater conservation effort is necessary to ensure the conservation of the near-natural vegetation on SNS in north-western Morocco.
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