A surface area of 22,762 ha was destroyed as the result of 500 wildfires in Morocco in 2022, according to director of National Agency for Water and Forests (ANEF) Abderrahim Houmy.
During a meeting Tuesday on forest fire for the year 2022, Houmy said that the ravaged areas in the past year are not sizeable compared to neighboring countries.
The northern region (Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima) is the most affected by such type of uncontrolled fires (188 wildfires and 18,704 ha damaged area), followed by Fez-Meknes (99 wildfires and 1,775 ha damaged area), added the director.
He explained that this distribution is explained by the presence of combustible vegetation in these areas, the dry climatic conditions during the summer season, as well as the strong pressure exerted by humans on forest resources.
The ANEF allocated 200 million MAD for the year 2023 for the prevention and control of wildfires.
According to the European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS) data, forest fire had damaged, over the same period, 288,086 ha in Spain, 90,158 ha in Portugal, 62,154 ha in France, 47,228 ha in Italy, and 47,170 ha in Algeria.