[graffis-l] DEVELOPMENT THREATENS MOROCCO'S WILD SHORELINE!

[Guest guest]

Development Threatens Morocco's Wild Shoreline

 

 

 

Posted by: " Mark Graffis "

mgraffis

mgraffis

 

 

Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:18 am (PST)

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45972/story.htm

Development Threatens Morocco's Wild Shoreline

-------------------------

SAIDIA, Morocco - Ecologists say a tragedy is unfolding in north

Africa where construction firms are moving in on some of the last

unspoilt stretches of Mediterranean coastline in the search for profits.

 

With Spain trying to preserve what remains undeveloped on its

built-up shoreline, Morocco has stepped forward as a willing host for

large-scale tourism development as it seeks to narrow the north-south

wealth divide and lift millions out of poverty.

The cost, say environment campaigners, will be irreparable damage to

the Mediterranean's wilder southern shores where urban and industrial

expansion, rampant pollution and illegal sand extraction are already

taking their toll.

Morocco wants to attract millions of extra tourists to a chain of

seaside resorts being built by Spanish, Belgian and Dutch consortia and

US groups Kerzner and Colony Capital.

The first is under way in Saidia on Morocco's eastern edge, where

Spain's Fadesa is turning a low-lying area of forests and dunes into 7

million square metres of shops, golf courses, hotels with 17,000 beds and

3,100 villas and flats.

On its British Web site, Fadesa promises " landscaped parks and

green areas, as well as pleasant public spaces, (will) harmonise with the

beautiful natural surroundings. "

At the development last month, machines lumbered over a landscape of

earthworks, workers' shacks and the tattered remains of what campaigners

say was Morocco's only juniper forest.

" We call them the destroyers, " said local environment

campaigner Najib Bachiri. " They dug up 6 km of dunes and killed

thousands of tortoises just so you can see the sea from the

corniche. "

In a statement, Fadesa said it had " put in place measures for

the protection, recuperation and regeneration of the environment beyond

what was demanded by Moroccan law " .

BEACHES RETREATING

Seven out of 47 of Morocco's Mediterranean beaches have disappeared

in recent years, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in a report

last year. In Algeria, of between 250 and 300 km (160 and 190 miles) of

sandy beaches, 85 percent were retreating and losing sand.

In valleys throughout the Maghreb, new dams for irrigation are

trapping sediment that once washed down to coastal areas to bolster

important wildlife habitats.

Wildlife groups said Fadesa was given carte blanche to destroy the

dunes that protected Saidia's hinterland from the sea and flatten all but

a small patch of forest.

" They could at least have left some of the trees for the golf

courses, but even they were uprooted, " said Mohamed Benata, head of

regional development association ESCO.

Fadesa has said the Saidia project will create 8,000 direct jobs and

more than 40,000 indirectly in a poor region cut off since 1994 when

Algeria closed its land border with Morocco.

Tourism Ministry officials said they wanted each new resort to make

use of the local environment to attract higher-spending visitors, adding

that they had enforced the most widely used international standards for

preserving the natural habitat.

Some observers say Morocco made a mistake in allowing Fadesa to build

close to the Moulouya wetland, the country's most important reserve for

more than 200 species of birds, and fear the worst, given plans for up to

a million visitors every year.

" It's too close to the mouth of the river which has the richest

ecosystem, " said Alaoui El Kebir of the UN Development Programme

(UNDP) in Rabat.

Saidia's unique habitat drew life from water seeping through the sand

and collecting in marshy areas. Fadesa has built channels and barriers to

drain water away from the buildings.

" Fadesa say the work will dry about 5 percent of the wetland but

our calculations show it'll be more like half, " said Benata.

MIGRATING BIRDS

Without the wetland, a vital stepping stone for hundreds of millions

of migrating birds would be removed.

The EEA says several north African wetlands are threatened, including

Lake Bizerta in Tunisia, the salt lake of Regahaia in Algeria and 23rd of

July Lake in Libya.

Bachiri accuses Fadesa of flouting local laws by pumping water from

the Moulouya river. Lorries could be seen last month on the river bank

loading up with salty water then returning to the work site.

A spokesman for Fadesa said the company had presented an

environmental impact study when tendering for the project, which the

Moroccan government had accepted, and had implemented steps to protect

and improve the environment beyond that required by Moroccan law.

ESCO's Benata said mega-projects such as Saidia were out of fashion

in Europe -- Spain had begun copying a strategy pioneered on the French

Riviera to reclaim land, demolish buildings and regenerate the ecosystem.

 

Once the Saidia development is complete, Fadesa is likely to sell the

site to management companies. Years down the line, however, nature may

regain control.

" We produced a flooding scenario which shows most of the Fadesa

complex could be under water by 2050 as global warming raises sea

levels, " said Maria Snoussi, earth sciences professor at Mohamed V

University in Rabat. (Additional reporting by Sarah Morris in Madrid;

editing by Sara Ledwith and Andrew Dobbie)

Story by Tom Pfeiffer

Story 13/12/2007

At 01:42 PM 12/13/07, you wrote:

Development Threatens Morocco's

Wild Shoreline

Posted by: " Mark Graffis " mgraffis

mgraffis

Thu Dec 13, 2007 7:18 am (PST)

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/45972/story.htm

Development Threatens Morocco's Wild Shoreline

-------------------------

SAIDIA, Morocco - Ecologists say a tragedy is unfolding in north Africa

where construction firms are moving in on some of the last unspoilt

stretches of Mediterranean coastline in the search for profits.

With Spain trying to preserve what remains undeveloped on its built-up

shoreline, Morocco has stepped forward as a willing host for large-scale

tourism development as it seeks to narrow the north-south wealth divide

and lift millions out of poverty.

The cost, say environment campaigners, will be irreparable damage to the

Mediterranean's wilder southern shores where urban and industrial

expansion, rampant pollution and illegal sand extraction are already

taking their toll.

Morocco wants to attract millions of extra tourists to a chain of seaside

resorts being built by Spanish, Belgian and Dutch consortia and US groups

Kerzner and Colony Capital.

The first is under way in Saidia on Morocco's eastern edge, where Spain's

Fadesa is turning a low-lying area of forests and dunes into 7 million

square metres of shops, golf courses, hotels with 17,000 beds and 3,100

villas and flats.

On its British Web site, Fadesa promises " landscaped parks and green

areas, as well as pleasant public spaces, (will) harmonise with the

beautiful natural surroundings. "

At the development last month, machines lumbered over a landscape of

earthworks, workers' shacks and the tattered remains of what campaigners

say was Morocco's only juniper forest.

" We call them the destroyers, " said local environment

campaigner Najib Bachiri. " They dug up 6 km of dunes and killed

thousands of tortoises just so you can see the sea from the

corniche. "

In a statement, Fadesa said it had " put in place measures for the

protection, recuperation and regeneration of the environment beyond what

was demanded by Moroccan law " .

BEACHES RETREATING

Seven out of 47 of Morocco's Mediterranean beaches have disappeared in

recent years, the European Environment Agency (EEA) said in a report last

year. In Algeria, of between 250 and 300 km (160 and 190 miles) of sandy

beaches, 85 percent were retreating and losing sand.

In valleys throughout the Maghreb, new dams for irrigation are trapping

sediment that once washed down to coastal areas to bolster important

wildlife habitats.

Wildlife groups said Fadesa was given carte blanche to destroy the dunes

that protected Saidia's hinterland from the sea and flatten all but a

small patch of forest.

" They could at least have left some of the trees for the golf

courses, but even they were uprooted, " said Mohamed Benata, head of

regional development association ESCO.

Fadesa has said the Saidia project will create 8,000 direct jobs and more

than 40,000 indirectly in a poor region cut off since 1994 when Algeria

closed its land border with Morocco.

Tourism Ministry officials said they wanted each new resort to make use

of the local environment to attract higher-spending visitors, adding that

they had enforced the most widely used international standards for

preserving the natural habitat.

Some observers say Morocco made a mistake in allowing Fadesa to build

close to the Moulouya wetland, the country's most important reserve for

more than 200 species of birds, and fear the worst, given plans for up to

a million visitors every year.

" It's too close to the mouth of the river which has the richest

ecosystem, " said Alaoui El Kebir of the UN Development Programme

(UNDP) in Rabat.

Saidia's unique habitat drew life from water seeping through the sand and

collecting in marshy areas. Fadesa has built channels and barriers to

drain water away from the buildings.

" Fadesa say the work will dry about 5 percent of the wetland but our

calculations show it'll be more like half, " said Benata.

MIGRATING BIRDS

Without the wetland, a vital stepping stone for hundreds of millions of

migrating birds would be removed.

The EEA says several north African wetlands are threatened, including

Lake Bizerta in Tunisia, the salt lake of Regahaia in Algeria and 23rd of

July Lake in Libya.

Bachiri accuses Fadesa of flouting local laws by pumping water from the

Moulouya river. Lorries could be seen last month on the river bank

loading up with salty water then returning to the work site.

A spokesman for Fadesa said the company had presented an environmental

impact study when tendering for the project, which the Moroccan

government had accepted, and had implemented steps to protect and improve

the environment beyond that required by Moroccan law.

ESCO's Benata said mega-projects such as Saidia were out of fashion in

Europe -- Spain had begun copying a strategy pioneered on the French

Riviera to reclaim land, demolish buildings and regenerate the ecosystem.

 

Once the Saidia development is complete, Fadesa is likely to sell the

site to management companies. Years down the line, however, nature may

regain control.

" We produced a flooding scenario which shows most of the Fadesa

complex could be under water by 2050 as global warming raises sea

levels, " said Maria Snoussi, earth sciences professor at Mohamed V

University in Rabat. (Additional reporting by Sarah Morris in Madrid;

editing by Sara Ledwith and Andrew Dobbie)

Story by Tom Pfeiffer

Story 13/12/2007

 

******

Kraig and Shirley Carroll ... in the woods of SE Kentucky

http://www.thehavens.com/

thehavens

606-376-3363

 

 

 

---

Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free.

Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).

Version: 6.0.859 / Virus Database: 585 - Release 2/14/05