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The Maghreb's oases systems provide a major contribution to the region's food security, economy and protection of natural resources and play an essential role in the settlement of populations through job creation. Despite this potential, oasis ecosystems are threatened by a range of complex factors related to the expansion of agricultural land, increasing scarcity of water resources and competition for water. The project “Adaptive management and monitoring of the Maghreb's oases systems", implemented by FAO in Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania from May 2016 to December 2019, brought together several key stakeholders from these three oasis countries, in order to address the lack of available information on the status of oases and to advocate on factual bases shared by all stakeholders and verifiable in the field.

The project, which adopted a participatory approach, achieved its results, including strengthening the institutional and technical capacities for the management of oasis production systems, and those of local stakeholders to disseminate knowledge and deliver training on good practices. In terms of concrete achievements, all project components were implemented, except for the monitoring and evaluation component, which had mixed results. In the three countries, at different levels, efforts still need to be made to finalize the introduction of data into the Geographic Information System (GIS) and to ensure the adaptive management of the oases as envisaged by the project. In view of the role of oases as a crossroads of civilisations and a fundamental model of sustainability, it is important for FAO to establish an oasis data management system within FAOSTAT.

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