Is Conservation of Sacred natural sites
in Morocco incompatible with socioeconomic
development?
Sacred natural sites in Morocco are protected traditional reserves
of relict Mediterranean ecosystems with high cultural
and ecological values. They materialize traditional ecological
knowledge endangered by various ideological and political
threats. The aim of this work is establishing a geographic inventory
of sacred sites in the Province of Larache (N Morocco)
and analyzing their distribution in relation with some
socioeconomic indexes. The topographic cartography used
La conservation des sites naturels sacrés au Maroc: est-elle
incompatible avec le développement socio-économique?
ÍNDICE 11
((1/50000) has allowed the location of 575 sacred sites with
178 of them possessing sacred forests. A Geographic Information
System incorporating various types of spatial data allowed
stating that location of sacred sites depends on human
presence: more frequent at low altitudes and with high density
at the piedmonts in comparison with mountainous areas, they
are also more abundant near rural hamlets and at the proximity
of the roads. On the contrary sacred sites are rarely close
to urban areas and large rural settlements. Rural communities
away from cities possess more sacred groves. In relation
to socioeconomic data, the number of sacred sites by rural
community is negatively correlated with social development
index and rate of electrifi cation. The abundance of sacred
sites has however a positive correlation with rural communities
that have high rate of aged population and high rate of
mobile telephonic connection. These results suggest that in
the absence of a national strategy of conservation and valuation
traditional ecological knowledge, access to basic social
services is detrimental to the conservation of sacred sites