Global News - December 2007

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New development threatens unspoilt Moroccan coastline

Thu 13 December 2007 13:45 UK — Africa,Other

Local people have reacted angrily to Moroccan government plans to build a series of large scale tourist developments along unspoilt stretches of the country's African coastline.

A chain of resorts are planned, with construction on the first, being built by Spain's Fadesa, already underway in Saidia on Morocco's eastern edge, Reuters reported.

When work started last month, locals claimed the construction vehicles destroyed the remains of Morocco's last juniper forest, while others have stated the development is too near to a wetland visited by 200 species of birds.

"It's too close to the mouth of the river which has the richest ecosystem," Alaoui El Kebir of the United Nations Development Programme told the website.

Local environmental campaigner, Najib Bachiri, added: "We call them the destroyers. They dug up 6 km of dunes and killed thousands of tortoises just so you can see the sea from the cornice."

According to the European Environment Agency, seven of Morocco's 47 Mediterranean beaches have disappeared in recent years.

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