The sound of a gunshot pierced the silence of the Tainza forest in the Tanqoub commune of Chefchaouen province, around seven-thirty in the morning of Sunday, announcing the actual start of the 2025-2026 hunting season in the rented and licensed areas of the forests and woodlands of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region.
The shot, fired from a hunting rifle in the hands of a member of the "Hunting and Nature" tourist hunting company in Chefchaouen, did not miss its target, as it brought down a "partridge" that had left its hiding place, forced by the approach of hunting dogs trained to track the traces and scents of prey.
With the actual start of the hunting season, more than 1,600 hunting areas in various regions of the Kingdom, with a total area estimated at more than 4 million hectares, have been opened to about 68,000 active hunters, affiliated with various associations or licensed tourist hunting companies, provided that they respect the standards of sustainable and responsible hunting to preserve the natural balance.
At the entrance to the "Zaytona" area in the Tanqoub commune, the Moroccan News Agency accompanied a patrol belonging to the National Agency for Water and Forests as it was conducting an inspection tour of the hunting areas, to ensure that licensed and trained hunters in the tourist hunting company respected the conditions of sustainable hunting and had the legal licenses for this activity.
Marwan Al-Zemrani, head of the Wildlife Monitoring Unit for Chefchaouen-Wazzan-Al Hoceima, affiliated with the National Agency for Water and Forests, confirmed in a statement to the Moroccan News Agency that Sunday marks the actual start of the 2026-2025 hunting season, which is characterized this year by an abundance of prey and an increase in the area of hunting rentals, as well as the great demand of hunters for tourist hunting associations and companies.
He added that in order to value these gains and ensure a good start to the season, the agency's services have taken several proactive measures, where all field units were mobilized with the guards and other partners to combat random hunting, and the maps of hunting areas were updated.
To facilitate access to these measures, he explained that a special application was launched, available on the National Agency for Water and Forests' electronic portal, which allows hunters to update their data on the rented areas, adding that several awareness and communication meetings were also held for the benefit of the general public of hunters, the last of which was last Thursday in Tangier, in the presence of the Director General of the National Agency for Water and Forests, during which the focus was on the need for responsible and sustainable hunting by respecting the laws and behaving with high morals while practicing this activity, as well as respecting safety procedures in the use of hunting weapons.
At the level of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, and according to the 2024 figures, the area rented for hunting extends to more than 587,000 hectares, open to 223 hunting associations and companies.
The head of the "Hunting – Nature" company, Mohamed Fouad Ahjam, confirmed that the start of the hunting season is an opportunity for hunters, Moroccans and foreigners, to practice their hobby, especially in the areas belonging to the Chefchaouen province, which is characterized by the vastness of its forest cover and the abundance of wildlife and prey, highlighting the hunters' keenness to respect the controls of sustainable hunting, especially with regard to the number and size of prey.
He pointed out that tourist hunting can be a lever for local development in the Chefchaouen province, which has a vast area of forests, praising the good guidance of the National Agency for Water and Forests' services and their efforts to preserve wildlife and prevent illegal hunting.
A number of hunters, in similar statements, also expressed their happiness at the start of the hunting season, which allows them to practice their hobby, with the need to respect safety and sustainable hunting conditions, highlighting the qualifications enjoyed by the mountainous areas of Chefchaouen province in terms of the abundance of prey and the beauty of the natural scenery.
After a day between the sound of gunshots, the barking of hunting dogs, and the cries, hunters count the prey that their rifles have hit, which must remain less than the permitted number, which is 4 partridges, 5 wild rabbits, and 5 hares per hunter, under penalty of punitive measures approved by the patrols of the National Agency for Water and Forests for each violator.
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