FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Forest types

Forest cover map

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Map source: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, base map: ESRI

The above map is an extract from the Global Forest Cover map produced as part of FRA 2000. Please refer to FRA Working Paper 19 for a background to the production of the map.

A Mediterranean country, the Kingdom of Morocco has wide variations in climate, relief and soil. It is divided in two by the Atlas mountain chains, thus experiencing ocean influences in the north and west, while the drying effects of the Sahara govern the south and east. The Mediterranean part of the country has a wide range of climates and subsoils, resulting in major variations in shallow soils, often marked by the presence of a calcareous crust and a very small proportion of organic matter. However, the commonest soils are chestnut-brown or red. The Atlas region contains a very wide range of landscapes, dominated by mountain chains separated by plateaux and basins. The Rif is a coastal chain along the Mediterranean coast, becoming plateaux and high plains in the east. South of the Rif lie low lands, then the Central Plateau (1 500-1 600 m). In the centre of the country are the mountainous zones of the Middle Atlas, High Atlas and Anti-Atlas. In contrast to this, the Saharan part of the country is almost flat over vast areas, with plateaux seldom over 500 m in altitude and depressions that give rise to desert. The desert regions south of the Anti-Atlas have soils that are for the most part fairly unevolved, shallow and pebble-covered, as well as fixed and unfixed dunes. More than three-quarters of Morocco is thus subject to very harsh climatic conditions: dry desert climates with low rainfall, violent and irregular rainfall, and wind erosion.

Morocco's relief and climate have led to the development of a wide variety of forest formations, ranging from scattered Acacia stands in arid zones to conifer forests in humid mountain zones. This diversity in ecosystems means a corresponding floristic wealth, and over 4 200 species and subspecies have been recorded, about 800 of which are endemic.

The most common forest species are holm oak and Atlas cedar in mountain forests in humid and subhumid zones, whereas argan is the dominant species in the arid and semi-arid southwest Atlantic zones. Although other species (pine, thuja, juniper, cork oak and zeen oak, all of which are found in both pure and mixed stands) are found in the country, they do not cover areas as great as the above three. Other species (such as white poplar, tamarisk and pistachio in the Atlas, and thorny acacias along the edge of the Sahara) are found as isolated trees, typical features of the Moroccan landscape. Three broad forest groups can thus be distinguished:

• the major formations in terms of area are found in subhumid and humid bioclimates (an annual rainfall of 600-1 800 mm), in other words chiefly in the mountains (the Atlas, Deddou and Rif ranges and the Central Plateau); the main species here is the holm oak (Quercus ilex), with scatterings of zeen oak (Q. faginea), Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica) and mountain juniper (Juniperus thurifera);
• formations in semi-arid zones (an annual rainfall of 250-500 mm) cover smaller areas; found around the edges of the main mountain massifs, on the Atlantic plains and along the edge of the Mediterranean, they consist of argan (Argania spinosa), Phoenician juniper (Juniperus phoenicea), Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) and thuja (Tetraclinis articulata), depending on altitude;
• formations in arid bioclimates (an annual rainfall of 100-250 mm) in the southern half of the country are mainly argan stands, alfa grass (Stipa tenacissima) and pre-Saharan shrub formations composed mainly of various acacia species and jujube (Ziziphus lotus) in combination with Pistacia atlantica, Withania frutescent and many herbaceous plants; Saharan formations are composed of scattered trees (mainly tamarisk and acacia).