I-WALAMAR Sustainable Transformations in rural Morocco

The Moroccan agriculture is in transformation and is experiencing intensification and commercialization, which, in addition to social and economic impacts, has significant impacts on soil and water resources in key growing areas such as the Fès-Meknès region (FMR). Climate change is triggering additional stress on water and land resources. A consortium of four Germany research institutes and five commercial enterprises, led by Research Institute for Water and Waste Management at RWTH Aachen (FiW) came together with Moroccan partners under the coordination of the Universitè Moulay Ismael to carry out innovative research on practical solutions for local land, water and resource management, the re-use of scarce resources, the preservation of ecosystem services, the restoration of heavily degraded soils and an optimization of cultivation practices in the FMR. The collaborative project " Sustainable Technologies and Services for Water and Land Management in Morocco (I-WALAMAR)"  aimed to identify potential uses for peasants and agricultural companies and to advise political decision-makers, private companies and other users on their feasibility in the sense of sustainable rural development. BICC's subproject  "Sustainable transformations in rural Morocco"  aimed to capture and evaluate the socio-economic sustainability and potential risks of transformation processes in rural Morocco that are induced by innovative agricultural practices and new technologies. Our specific work goals were: Analysis of the socio-economic transformations in the FMR, taking into account changing livelihoods and market structures, rural-urban migration, and new strategies and technologies for water and land management; GIS and satellite-based documentation and quantification of land use change in the FMR; Analysis of the acceptance of technical, political and organizational innovations in land use, irrigation and resource management by local users; Assessment of local capacities to integrate land use, irrigation and resource management innovations into existing cultivation practices and related conflict risks and sustainability potentials.