Conservation status of the vegetation of Sacred Natural Sites in north-western Morocco

Abstract

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.