Bridging the gap of perception is the only way to align soil protection actions

Assessment of Geosites in Northern Morocco: Diversity and Richness with Potential for Socioeconomic Development

“…In the other provinces (Al Hoceima, Chefchaouen, Fahs-Anjra and Ouezzane), the difficulties of access, the hard mountain conditions and the large migratory flows led to a drop in agricultural profitability (main activity sector) which intensify the disruption between the economy and demography (Salhi and Chikhi 2018). Indeed, the agricultural sector is the locomotive of the regional economy with up to 11% of the country's useful agricultural land and 57% of the total regional area (Salhi et al 2020).…”

“…The study area is of the biodiversity hotspots of the Mediterranean which, however, suffers an incessant process of degradation due to overexploitation and non-alignment of management and protection actions threatening several ecosystems and landscapes (Salah et al 2018;Salhi et al 2020). Over the past twenty years, it has witnessed an accelerating economic dynamism that has led to the growth of all productive sectors and a rapid increase in the regional gross domestic product (Salhi et al 2019).…”

“…This dynamism was accompanied by major structural projects and high demand for investment projects, especially in industry, tourism and construction. However, it involved high pressure on the quality and availability of water and soil, and led to waste production and environmental degradation (Salhi et al 2020).…”

“…This potential should be carefully studied and managed within the values of ecological tourism not to break the fragile water balance. Winter and autumn are rainy (45% and 30% per annual rainfall average, respectively), although there is an irregular spatiotemporal variability in the annual rainfall (from 300 mm in average in the East up to 1,100 mm in the central mountain belt), which can locally reach high intensities causing abundant runoff and loss of soil (Salhi et al 2020). Besides, there is a clear temperature increase in the last decades because of global warming, as well as longer droughts (Benabdelouahab and Salhi 2018;Hadria et al 2019).…”

“…The maintain of social, economic and environmental equilibrium is crucial in this Mediterranean southern frontier where immigration and environmental fragilities should not be underestimated; coupled with socioeconomic congestion (in relation with an illiteracy rate of 31%, an unemployment rate above 8% and an excessive poverty rate (HCP 2018)) it would lead to an irremediable crash (Salhi et al 2020).…”