Which plants matter? A comparison of academic and community assessments of plant value and conservation status in the Moroccan High Atlas

As interest in including local communities and their knowledge in biodiversity conservation increases, challenges to do so become clear. One of them is to harmonize local and academic assessments of conservation status. Here, we document the culturally valuable flora of two Amazigh communities in the Moroccan High Atlas Mountains and contrast local conservation observations with IUCN and other red-listing assessments. Our study reveals two levels of mismatch. Unsurprisingly, the species of interest of these two knowledge systems differ considerably. Moreover, species "availability and populations" trends of change and the conservation evaluations often diverge between local and academic assessments. Locally valuable species are rarely threatened, but a focus on locally prioritized species is essential to ensure the active participation of local communities in conservation initiatives. Given the salient role of IUCN Red Lists in guiding conservation action, a better understanding of the differences in plant value and conservation assessments between the two knowledge systems can help harmonize biodiversity conservation and community wellbeing goals.The research has been funded by the MAVA Foundation and the UK Darwin InitiativeAbstractIntroductionMaterials and methods Study area Data collection, plant identification, and data analysesResults Brief ethnobotanical description of the High Atlas locally valuable biodiversity Ethnobotanical knowledge and plant conservation assessmentsDiscussionConclusionReferencesPeer reviewe

Another vision of sound tree and forest management : insights from traditional ash shaping in the Moroccan Berber mountains

International audienceThe dimorphic Ash tree (Fraxinus dimorpha) is a keystone species in the functioning of agro-sylvo pastoral systems and livelihoods found on the northern slopes of the Atlas Mountains of Morocco. It grows in spontaneous woodlands and forests which are fully integrated within agro-ecosystems. Local populations have for centuries shaped ash stands by sequentially trimming and pollarding individual trees for providing fodder, house roof building material and ecosystem services for the overall social-ecological system. Exploitation follows very strictly observed 4-year cycles of exploitation of pollarded trees, which allows the harvesting of each individual tree for foliar forage after 4 years of regrowths, and at the same time shaping and letting some well-grown branches develop for further cycles in order to provide diameter-standardized poles (after 8 years) and beams (after 28-32 years) for house roof construction. The management of tree regeneration is also illustrative of deep-seated Traditional Ecological Knowledge. Overgrazed trees or new seedlings are protected by means of stone walls. Resprouts with the most vigorous and straightest stems are selected and linked to each other, in order to favor, when growing, trunk anastomosis. This highly original practice allows an increase in foliage production of 36% after a 4-year cycle, compared to non-anastomosed trees, and promotes the resilience and longevity of the trees. The main discrepancies in the vision of what might constitute 'good' forest management between local stakeholders and professional foresters concern 1) the scale of the management unit (individual trees and overall forested landscape vs tree stand), 2) the partial (diffuse) exploitation of living trees vs intensive cycles of exploitation of the whole tree stand, and 3) flexibility and pro-active management of heterogeneity vs homogenization. This perspective offers an alternative basis for rethinking forest management strategies in a context of global change, and original insights for conserving anthropized forest ecosystems without excluding people

What is an agdal ?

https://www.global-diversity.org/what-is-an-agdalGlobal Diversity Foundation : Blog, High Atlas Cultural Landscapes, MediterraneanThe word agdal derives from the Amazigh root (letters) GDL, meaning ‘to prohibit’ or ‘to protect’. Agdals are extended all over the Maghreb, from southern Tunisia to the western Sahara and from Mauritania to the north of Algeria. In Morocco, agdals refer to a great variety of different natural resource governance systems. Global Diversity Foundation’s work focuses on pastoral agdals, a traditional land management practice that governs access to communal pastoral lands and resources, mainly by fixing opening and closing dates, as well as other regulations and complexities regarding access rights (Dominguez et al., 2012)