Hey, my Berber Friend, draw me a rural forest !

The functional shaping of rural forests in Southern Morocco

Didier GENIN, Romain SIMENELIRD-LPED, Marseille

Rural forests: another way of forest management approach

Towards a definition…Those forests that are more or less formally appropriated, managed, shaped or rebuilt by rural communities

Stakes Understand better the intimate relationships

between forest resources and rural livelihoods A new lecture of landscapes and ecological impacts Imagine others relationships between stakeholders

linked to forest management and use

Objectives

To show how Berber rural societies have shaped their forest landscapes into diversified patches in order to satisfy material, social, cultural and long-term needs

Logics behind acts

To revisit foresters-peasants’ relationshipsand ways to reinforce them

Forest management in theBerber world

The Berber word AThe Berber word Agdalgdal refers to a refers to a sylvopastoral territory in which access and sylvopastoral territory in which access and uses are regulated by a customary authority uses are regulated by a customary authority (usually the village or tribal assembly)(usually the village or tribal assembly)

It mainly consists in a temporary exclosure It mainly consists in a temporary exclosure of an area from grazing or harvesting (wood, of an area from grazing or harvesting (wood, tree foliage, fruits)…tree foliage, fruits)…

… but a high diversity of … but a high diversity of situations can be foundsituations can be found

Two areas, two ecologies, but in both cases a highly shaped forest landscape

Forest agdals: an endogenous forest management

Depending on the villages and theirresources structure, rules are related to:

Period of exclosure, and from what ? (grazing, harvesting, cultivating)

Period of collect Quantities of resources authorized per day Agdal compartmentalization in sectors and rotations of cutting

foliage Tree species or parts to be exploited

A complex mosaïc of wooded areas whose functions are well defined for supplying specific resources in a given areas, and at a given period

HA: Agdals and outside agdals areas, combining three species of Juniper and holm oak formations

Argan forest: fields, ourtis, agdals, mouchaas, reforested areas…

Rural forest of Southern Morocco: man-induced diversity

At individual tree scale

Adapted from Ba (2009)

Operating at three scales

0.1390.6340.0020.0470.4680.0010.814Probability of Student's test

7793.8299514.713326Agdal (n=35)

5494.7167010.3111325Outside agdal (n=22)

Spanish juniper crown volume (m3/ha)

Spanish juniper basal area (m3/ha)

Holm oak Crown volume (m3/ha)

Holm oak basal area (m²/ha)

Cover of herbaceous strata (%)

Cover of Holm oak matorral (%)

Total cover (%)

Rural forest of Southern Morocco: man-induced diversity At tree stand scale

Differential footprints of Spanish juniper depending on forest management system

Agdal

OutsideAgdal

At landscape scale

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2,8 ± 2,94,3 ± 1,94,5 ± 0.86,1 ± 1,7Tree height (m)

170 ± 52167 ± 39127 ± 8956 ± 21Tree density/ha

mouchaasAgdalsOurtisFields

Peasants’ forester’s forest management systems: towards reconciliation?

An obviously contrasting vision

Continuous or seasonal

Pluri-annualCycles

Individual trees to landscape

Tree standScales of intervention

« diversified resources source »

Resource conservation and timber production

Forest management objectives

PeasantsForesters

« Biodiversity of function »

Each species and ecosystem must be protected in their own rights

Biodiversity perception

DiversifiedVerticalRelationships bet. stakeholders

Opprtunistic manage. at desequilibrium

Vegetation successionEcological principles

Two examples Holm oak formations

Argan tree regeneration

Forest agdal, a possible basis for shared management?

«… A new approach which combines strategic planning, and long-term, decentralized and participative processes… » (National Forest Program, 1999)

The agdal system and classical forest management: A common main objective Resource conservation A shared condition A clear identification of users A shared elementary action A temporary resting from use

???

Conclusion

Traditional forest managementcan contribute to

A certain diversity (different scales) High quality ecosystem perpetuation

But often not enough to combate forest depletion due to socio economic and demographic constraints

Diversity always related to functions it can play for rural livelihoods…and spatio temporal complementarities

The Agdal system as a basis for finding original solutions for better coordination and more efficient environmental governance

At first, major stakes : Different knowledge and forest objectives recognition Sharing competency and power in matter of forest management

Thank you for your attention