First TA for EU Programme to Support Morocco's Forestry Policy Ending

We are sad to close the project, but proud to have been successfully involved in the core of the Moroccan forestry sector for the past four years.

NIRAS’s involvement contributed to a support program for the High Commission for Water, Forests and Fight Against Desertification (HCEFLCD), backing it in the expansion of procedures, management rules, and mechanisms necessary for implementation, piloting, and monitoring and evaluation of the PAPS-Forêts project. NIRAS assisted the HCEFLCD in strengthening its institutional capacity and participated in updating its forestry policy.

We also brought expertise by providing ad hoc expertise and technical support to the implementation of specific program activities based on beneficiary requirements and carried out studies, surveys, and training in line with the support programme’s needs. NIRAS deployed 30 experts to this project.

Some of the activities included:

• Silvopastoral study
• Evaluation of the technical and socio-economic impact of cooperatives and associations in the forest sector
• Training forestry cooperatives
• Study of forest value chain developments and the identification of opportunities
• Cork market supply-and-demand study
• Support of the development of an incentive system to promote reforestation and the economic development of forestry sectors
• Technical assistance in the conception of Terms of Reference to update the national watershed management plan
• Technical assistance in setting up a monitoring tool for the PAPS-Forêts
• Support in result-based budgeting and management, supporting the wood-energy and silvopastoral strategies’ implementation in a pilot region
• Technical assistance and support in the development and field tests of a GIS-WEB application to monitor management plans
• GIS trainings
• Technical assistance in the development of communication materials

The whole NIRAS team and the Team Leader have been key actors in the success of this project. We anticipate more work to come from Morocco in this sector and others, and we hope to be back soon.