The Valley Drâa and the Regions Zagora and Ouarzazate

The Valley Drâa and the Regions Zagora and Ouarzazate

  The area surrounding the village Timidarte consists of the region of Zagora in the south of the village and the region of Ouarzazate in the north. The two cities Zagora and Ouarzazate (which take the same names as the re-gions) are connected by the river and valley Drâa. The regions and the valley are lo-cated in the south of Morocco bordering with Algeria.

Fig: Map of Ouarzazate, Zagora, Agdz, and Valley Draa

The valley is 125 km long. There are 100 000 – 200 000 people, mostly Berber, living in villages along the river. The water level of the river is low most of the year, and it becomes lower the further south the river comes. There is only one city in the valley, Agdz. Visually, the valley is dotted by red-earth kasbahs and oases which make it an attractive landscape for tourists.
The whole region surrounding Timidarte is confronted with ecological, social and cul-tural issues. The arid zone suffers from little rainfalls and from an overuse of water resources, which are basic to life: "Everything depends on water: the humans, agriculture, tourism and the industry " (Direction de l'Amenagement du Territoire. Besides the lack of water there are other factors like de-sertification, aggradations, erosion or deforestation which reduce the productivity of the soil and limit the natural resources of the region. Additionally, a shortage of land, micro-parcels (due to heritage traditions), poor outcome, low prices for agricultural products, and too little social services (concerning education and health) are char-acteristic for these rural areas. Consequently, emigration to the plains and the cit-ies is a severe social problem.
At the same time, cultural heritage (e.g. qsour, kasbahs) is being degraded, espe-cially by new types of buildings which are not built in the clay technique but concrete. This might affect the visual appearance of the traditional environment.
Another fact that has to be mentioned concerns the orientation of the valley Drâa to-wards tourism. This orientation results in an increased number of campsites (replac-ing agriculture) on the one hand and wild camping in fragile areas (e.g. in gorges, in oases) on the other hand. Consequently, there are conflicts caused by the distur-bance of the natural equilibrium and of the landscape, that is, conflicts between the 'wild' and uncontrolled tourism and the dependence on the natural resources (for liv-ing as well as for tourism): "The extension of wild (…) tourism has the potential to destroy the landscape and to loose exactly these resources that attract tourists"

The Role of Rural Tourism in the Regions Zagora and Ouarzazate

”The Drâa-Valley is a narrow valley in the Saharan foreland that lives from its only source of life, the river Drâa. Major economic investments are hardly to realise, an extend of mass tourism would destroy the cultural heritage of the region to a large degree. An ecologically justifiable and conserving tourism, which already has been intensifying during the last years, constitutes one the few chances to strengthen the region economically and thus to anticipate the migration to the cities. ”
As this quote shows, tourism could be able to counter the above mentioned prob-lems, if it is introduced in a form that is not to the harm of the area but to its advan-tage. Tourism in this area is already an important factor to generate income. It also has positive economic effects on other sectors, on (seasonal) employment, and it is a source of foreign currencies. In 1996 the province received more than 700 000 tourists, mainly from France and Germany, also from Italy, Spain, UK, a minority originating in the Americas, Switzerland or Arab countries.
The forms of tourism offered in the area around Zagora and Ouarzazate are said to be mountain and adventure tourism; however, a look at the tours offered by tour operators reveals that cultural tourism plays also a significant role.
The city Ouarzazate has overcome its status as just a stage on the circular tours, now being a destination on its own (aside with Agadir and Marrakech) that has gen-erated its own customers. The city also has an airport which connects directly to Europe since 1986. These factors make Ouarzazate a poten-tial tourism spot with positive effects on its surroundings.
Compared to the coastal regions of Morocco, the area around Ouarzazate and Zagora offers distinct products (trekking and cultural tourism), a specific landscape (mountains, valleys, gorges), and a specific architecture (qsour, kasbahs). These elements, combined with the city Ouarzazate as a destination and with the air connection can contribute to a healthy tourism development. In addition, cul-tural tourism as well as most other forms of tourism which require specifically scen-ery landscapes have a good potential to be conducted in an ecological and socio-cultural sustainable manner.