Desire for Greener Land

Morocco – Sehoul
The Sehoul area has rainfed and irrigated cropland with cereals on the plateaux, and remnants of natural cork oak forest, used
for grazing apart from the timber and non-timber forest products. Extensive pastoralism is practiced on the steep borders of
the plateaux, resulting in land degradation by mostly soil erosion (surface erosion and gullying). Soil erosion is also prominent
in part of the cultivated area. Biological degradation is found on the plateau borders and in the forest due to the reduction of
the vegetation cover and the decline of biomass and biodiversity. Current conservation measures include agronomic measures
in the cropland addressing soil organic matter and fertility decline, and vegetative measures improving tree and shrub cover
in the forest. The effectiveness of the measures in cropland is low, motivating the SLM technologies of cereal-legume rotations
described in this book. For the plateau borders measures remediating gullying are proposed by planting Atriplex.
Maps of degradation and SLM DESIRE – WOCAT 2012
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