How Eco-Friendly is Morocco's Eco-Tourism?

Putting the eco in Morocco's tourism

Some call it a hype, others see it as an overdue necessity. Ecotourism has been trending worldwide for the past decade, including in Morocco.

We met with Ali last month, a mountain guide from the region of Al Haouz. Ali was born and bred in an Amazigh village 60km away from Marrakech. Since 2002, Ali has set up a small guesthouse next to his home and hosts up to six people. Activities offered put an emphasis on discovering the local culture, fauna and flora: pottery making (speciality of the region), gardening, hiking and climbing. Ali’s village today counts six families and most of them directly benefit from his activities. He relies on his vegetable garden, his chickens and his rabbits to feed his family and guests; he hopes to become completely self-sufficient in the upcoming years using solar energy and water harvesting from the rains and snowfalls.

It may seem that Ali’s project is just one in a hundred, if not a thousand. However the notion of ecotourism is often misinterpreted for just referring to a kind of touristic activity that involves contact with nature. Many warn against ecotourism becoming a marketing tool rather than anything substantial. ‘It seems that ecotourism has become synonymous with luxury’ deplores Ali.

Originally, the principle of ecotourism was coined by the Mexican architect Hector Ceballos-Lascurain in the early 1980’s and has been evolving ever since. Ecotourism now revolves around 3 main pillars based on the International Ecotourism Society’s definition. First and foremost, the respect for the environment; having no or a minimal impact on the local ecosystem remains the primary objective. The local fauna and flora tend to be the principal attractions. Second, the involvement of the local populations and ensuring their informed consent to the development of the ecotouristic activity, protecting the local culture and sharing the socio-economic benefits. Finally, an educational aspect: enabling the ecotourists to discover another culture, putting emphasis on the exchange of knowledge, skills and know-how; if not providing training or support to help the local population and to increase environmental awareness.

Due to the varying interpretations of what ecotourism actually is or isn’t, it is hard to be able to quantify the sector, be it in Morocco or elsewhere. With the Kingdom’s incredibly diverse landscapes, ranging from Saharan desert, oasis, waterfalls to mountains and ski slopes, including beaches with crystalline waters and a great wildlife, the government has become aware that Morocco’s nature and its vibrant ethnic and tribal cultural life are a major selling point for promoting tourism. Ecotourism was even made one of the main objectives of the ambitious ‘Vision 2020’ programme.  A third of the Kingdom's national parks have been created in the past decade, and a museum of ecotourism has opened in the surroundings of Marrakech.

But when trying to regulate the sector, the government seems to have adopted a ‘one size fits all’ approach. “Sometimes they try to implement some norms on the same basis as in other touristic areas” says Ali, “for instance, once they came around and said all houses hosting tourists should have their foundation made in steel for safety reasons. But this doesn’t work here. We can’t find steel in the region and we have been building our homes just fine during the past decades, if not centuries. This goes against the logic and purpose sustainable tourism even. How can someone who has been designing five, six storey buildings in urban areas be qualified to re-shape the way people live around here? The tuxedos in Rabat just don’t understand our reality”.

More remains to be done and further training should be provided to make the local populations aware of their impact on the environment. The government should also increase the accountability of hotels (as well as other infrastructures such as tour guides for instance) when it comes to issues such as waste disposal, sewage, etc – and incentives should be created to encourage eco-friendly behaviours. 

It should be carefully labelled which parts of the tourism industry (hotels, hostels, tour guides, excursions, etc) are ecotouristic and which aren’t, with a close monitoring of their activity and impact. The Moroccan government did sign some agreements with the UN and laid out an action plan to achieve the 2020 goal, but this failed to translate into substantial actions. 

Moreover, Morocco’s policies directed towards mass tourism are unsustainable and contradictory with the founding principles of ecotourism. As part of the Vision 2020 programme, the main aim is to double the touristic arrivals in just ten years. While many - for understandable reasons - continue to prioritise economic growth, the emphasis should be put on the quality of the touristic activities rather than the quantity. "Ecotourism has to be carefully planned by figuring out the number of visitors an area can reasonably handle” warns Eddie Bergman, director of Africa Travel Association - otherwise Morocco’s second largest source of income will soon run out.