Abstract
The plateau of Yagour is one of the high places of the cultural and natural heritage of the northern watershed of the Toubkal massif in Morocco. Through their ancestral know-how, they maintain a symbiosis between two productive systems, namely agriculture (vegetable, cereal and fruit), and extensive livestock farming. Common property is shared and managed by rights holders from neighbouring valleys. Today, the development of the accessibility of the Yagour favours the mobility of riparian populations and, of course, tourists. Straddling between the valley of mass tourism of “Ourika” and the valley barely touristic of “Zat”, the Yagour plateau should in the near future face the challenges of the tourism industry. In the face of such an upheaval and in order to ensure the sustainability and promotion of the various heritage resources, this article will first examine the changes and developments in the different production systems, their trends of convergence or divergence, and the resulting synergies and competitions. In a second phase, we will discuss the potential and the challenges that tourism could bring to this territory, its heritage and the people who live there. Finally, we will examine the role of mediation between actors, in their nested and hierarchical system, in order to face the new stakes of this territory, as well as the role of tourism as a facilitator of this mediation.
This paper is translated and adapted for an Anglophone public from our publication in the journal Maghreb-Machrek (n° 240, 2019).
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Notes
- 1.
Criterion (v): be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change; http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/
- 2.
Criterion (iii): bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to a cultural tradition or to a civilization which is living or which has disappeared;
- 3.
Law n°39-04 promulgated by the dahir n°1-05-193 of 15 Moharrem 1427 (February 14th, 2006) Official Bulletin N°5404–15 afar 1427 (March 16th, 2006) bearing approval, as for the principle, of the ratification by the Kingdom of Morocco of the Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage.
- 4.
Clarification should also accompany these reviews by considering current development of the emigration phenomenon towards other areas of Morocco, change of the extent of these agricultural surfaces according to wet or dry years and for how many decades has started the cereal culture to nibble Agdal grounds.
- 5.
Azib: Berber term for refuges or shelters with sheepfold.
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Boujrouf, S. et al. (2021). Living Treasures, Common Goods and Tourism Development of the Agdal of Yagour, Zat Valley, High Western Atlas, Morocco. In: Stock, M. (eds) Progress in French Tourism Geographies. Geographies of Tourism and Global Change. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52136-3_7
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