Morocco ANEF Compensations pour Mise en Défens — National State Forest Deferred-Grazing PES

The Compensations pour Mise en Défens (CMD) is Morocco's foundational payment for ecosystem services instrument, established by ministerial decree of 30 June 1999 and brought into force on 21 March 2002 under the Haut Commissariat aux Eaux et Forêts et à la Lutte contre la Désertification (HCEFLCD), now restructured as the Agence Nationale des Eaux et Forêts (ANEF).

Under the CMD, the state pays rural communities—organised into formally constituted pastoral associations or cooperatives—to refrain from exercising traditional grazing rights on degraded state forests undergoing plantation or natural regeneration. Payments are financed through the National Forest Fund (Fonds National Forestier, FNF), itself funded by taxes on commercial forest product revenues.

In the Mâamora forest (one of the world's largest natural cork-oak forests, east of Rabat), approximately 15,453 hectares—76% of the targeted area—was placed under CMD contracts. Approximately 29,000 households and 150,000 individuals are affected across the full ~132,000-hectare Mâamora management unit, with nearly 20 pastoral associations formally constituted there alone. Compliance improved measurably: violations (procès-verbaux) declined from 796 in 2007 to 505 in 2008. The CMD also contributes to watershed protection for the Sebou River basin and soil erosion reduction in a semi-arid landscape. Morocco's forests provide ecosystem services nationally valued at approximately €1.7 billion per year. The CMD represents the first nationally scaled, legally grounded PES mechanism in the Arab world and a rare documented case from the MENA region.

Read the full analysis: https://journals.openedition.org/vertigo/17148