Moroccan Environmental Group Battles Urban Palm Tree Expansion

While it had already launched campaigns since 2021 to stop the planting of palm trees in urban centers, including awareness campaigns on social networks and memorandums addressed to the authorities in the cities where it has observed a proliferation of these trees in recent years, the "Mouvement Maroc Environnement 2050" says it is observing that the phenomenon persists. The random planting of palm trees has spread from the cities of the southeast of the country through Marrakech and these trees are now being planted in several coastal cities, from Tangier in the north to Agadir in the center of the kingdom, the association said. However, palm trees are "expensive" and "do not provide us with the necessary shade or the ecological services provided by trees, such as the absorption of carbon dioxide, air purification, oxygen production, protection against floods, soil stabilization and erosion prevention," it laments.

Emboldened by these findings, the Movement is pursuing its crusade against the planting of palm trees outside of oases. The association considers this practice as a "serious environmental territorial error" and a "major environmental crime against Moroccans of today and tomorrow." This new campaign has received widespread support from activists on social media. They have in turn denounced the enthusiasm of the officials of their cities for the planting of palm trees, calling instead for the planting of shaded trees adapted to the specificities of their cities.

"The issue of reforestation is essential and vital, knowing that statistics indicate that 73% of Moroccans will live in cities by 2050," Salima Belmokadem, president of the Movement, previously stated, citing the urgency of equipping "cities by providing a number of trees according to international standards, proportionally to the amount of greenhouse gases produced by Morocco; knowing that we have high pollution... in Casablanca, for example, 20% of Casablancans suffer from asthma, and in Kénitra, a large part of the children use inhalers."