Country

Morocco

Explore historical and projected climate data, climate data by sector, impacts, key vulnerabilities and what adaptation measures are being taken. Explore the overview for a general context of how climate change is affecting Morocco.

Adaptation

Morocco’s Nationally Determined Contribution (2016) mentions that the country is developing a national adaptation program to better coordinate its adaptation policies, on which the country claims to have devoted 9% of all investment expenditures over 2005-2010. It also expects to dedicate 155 of overall investment budgets on climate change adaptation in the future. The current adaptation policies are run through sectoral strategies and plans such as National Plan for the Protection Against Floods,  National Strategy for Sustainable Development and National Plan to Combat Global Warming, among others.

Adaptation Options for Key Sectors

  • Implement crop diversification, using new varieties that are better suited and adaptable to projected changes, such as increased drought conditions, shorter growing seasons and parasite infestations.
  • Adopt dry land agricultural techniques in rainfed agricultural areas, which may also substantially improve and stabilize crop yields in drier climates. Dry agriculture conservation techniques would reduce evaporation, increase the interception of rain and its infiltration and ensure water saving, energy and time, as well as increase long-term productivity.
  • Improve access to relevant information on water and climate change to facilitate appropriate agricultural planning.
  • Build resilience in all food production systems, particularly in the most vulnerable farming systems (small scale and all rainfed systems).
  • Conduct research on local climate change impacts on forests to increase certainties about temperature and precipitation changes based on RCMs. This will facilitate the development of more precise scenarios about how climate change will affect species, ecological processes and ecosystem services.
  • Reinforce forest fire prevention, detection and suppression programs.
  • Maintain diversity, and ecological structure and processes, and reduce existing pressures on natural ecosystems.
  • Incorporate compatible adaptation measures in all land-use sectors and trade-offs to balance demands and reduce impacts on forests resulting from other land uses, such as agriculture (for example land conversion, competition for water resources and increased risk of fires from burning stubble).
  • Research, information and monitoring to facilitate risk modification, and reduce fire vulnerability.
  • Build capacity of protected area managers and local communities to monitor climate impacts on biodiversity.
  • Improve the performance of existing infrastructure to promote efficient water use and ensure sustainable water resources management.
  • Manage and conserve water by restricting water allocations from dam reservoirs
  • Establish emergency programs to mitigate the effects of drought in affected areas, including water supply points for rural populations to safeguard livestock.
  • Integrate spatial and urban planning combined with land reclamation (when relevant) to reduce pressures on land and water.
  • Conduct progressive redesign and multifunctional use of water infrastructure.
  • Provide reliable climate change information and risk analysis tools to support adaptive water resource management.
  • Conduct sand dune fixation, beach nourishment and build seawalls to protect urban and industrial areas of high value
  • Develop an integrated coastal zone management plan.
  • Increase awareness, building regulation and urban growth planning to ensure long-term sustainable development, while addressing the vulnerability of the coast to future sea level rise.

Gaps and Needs

  • Research is needed on technology options for adaptation for water resources and agriculture.
  • Existing coping mechanisms of communities to climate variability need to be inventoried and experiences that can be replicated or scaled-up should be identified.
  • There is great uncertainty, lack of knowledge and fragmentation in climate change data and information in Morocco, which creates the absence of a clear and systematic approach to policy formulation in the midst of competing priorities.
  • Decision makers presently lack the information necessary to evaluate risk and to support risk reduction for longer-term threats from climate change. Additional support is needed for the design of comprehensive risk management strategies at the national, provincial and local levels to enable long-term disaster risk reduction planning and mitigation measures.
  • Capacity needs to be built to use, modify and develop appropriate modelling, forecasting and decision- support tools and software.
  • Improved data analysis, sharing and coordination are necessary.
  • Meteorological data and information is vital and should be improved upon for regional climate modeling for climate change projection, as well as for developing appropriate adaptation measures.
  • Information on water resources, risks and vulnerability in different parts of Morocco needs to be disseminated to improve public awareness and involvement in adaptation programs.