HIBAPRESS – Mohamed Manfalouti
It is the rare pine trees that once covered vast areas of the Beer Baaouch forest in the municipality of Al-Mzamza Al-Janoubia, east of the city of Settat, as today it struggles to survive, and some of them have turned into a cemetery for trees that can no longer withstand diseases, the passage of time, strong winds, and the factors of erosion.
This reality questions the Regional and Provincial Directorate of Water and Forests to work on cleaning up this forest and launching a reforestation campaign to preserve this natural wealth, in harmony with the wise royal vision of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God protect him, who made the preservation of the environment a priority that must be given the largest share of care and attention, taking into account the fundamental role it plays in preserving the environmental surroundings, which made it one of the main concerns and new points included in the new Moroccan constitution. It is a forest disaster in the Beer Baaouch forest, Settat province, that caused the loss of important revenues if programmed for cutting through a public auction, our sources add. Settat province is rich in diverse and important natural potentials, but demographic growth, the acceleration of industrial activity, and urban expansion expose these environmental potentials to multiple problems that increase their severity due to irregular natural conditions, as various parts of this province suffer from many environmental problems resulting from the limited roles of local and other regional institutions in protecting this environmental wealth, which is considered the lung of the capital of Chaouia and the surrounding areas. Settat city, throughout its long history, was distinguished by shapes and colors of green spaces that play economic, social, environmental, and recreational functions, forming in previous periods agricultural gardens (Arsat) or agricultural lands, natural forests, or public gardens, but today it has witnessed a worrying decline in green spaces after the multiplicity of manifestations of green decline in the city as a result of urbanization, real estate speculation, and cutting forest areas in the framework of investment (uprooting vast areas of the Al-Mzamza Al-Janoubia forest) and at the northern entrance to the city, throwing construction materials in the middle of the urban forest of the city (behind the municipal stadium of Beer-Nzaran) and adjacent to the Al-Farah neighborhood, and abandoning agriculture while waiting for the arrival of the urban area… All these factors have led to continuous deterioration, the decline of the green space, and the emergence of signs of abandoning the environmental dimension in development projects. Good preservation of the green space of Settat province in general and the city in particular, to ensure its sustainability for future generations, requires taking some necessary and urgent measures within the framework of the city's policy, including: implementing a long-term plan to lay the foundations for preserving the sustainability of gardens in the prospect of achieving sustainable development for all neighborhoods of the city, taking into account future needs in this regard, putting an end to any cutting operation in the future by precisely defining the geographical area of green spaces (natural and artificial), arranging and classifying the green space as a local natural heritage and establishing the legal and institutional framework for its management, which will enable the definition of responsibilities and tasks and clarifying the roles of all those involved in its management, permanent and continuous guarding, especially for places that are frequented by many visitors… This is a message to all stakeholders to save the environmental field, especially the Beer Baaouch forest, which is dying and dying in silence, and all concerned parties should intensify efforts to strengthen the development march of Morocco in general and the city of Settat in particular, to win the bet of sustainable development, which has become a stake of the hour not only in our country but also in most countries of the world, and it is a bet raised by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God protect him, to the level of absolute priority in the development march of Morocco and made it the common goal of all policies through the National Pact project for the Environment and Sustainable Development, as well as strengthening the presence of the environment in the new Moroccan constitution.
