Morocco’s forestry authority has sounded the alarm over wildfire risk in six provinces, placing them under maximum alert through the middle of next week. The National Water and Forests Agency announced Thursday that Al Hoceima, Tangier-Tetouan, Taounate, Taza, Essaouira and Taroudant face critical fire danger from September 11 to 15, urging residents, hikers and forestry workers to exercise heightened vigilance.
The warning rests on predictive mapping that blends scientific, climatic and topographic data — vegetation type, flammability potential, weather forecasts and terrain features — allowing the agency to rank risk province by province rather than issuing a blanket nationwide alert. It is a method Moroccan authorities have refined in recent years, following a string of destructive blazes that scorched forested hillsides in the north of the country.
Beyond the six provinces facing critical danger, a much longer list of twenty-four provinces has been classified as high risk. The band stretches across a wide swath of the kingdom, from Chefchaouen, Larache and Ouazzane in the north down through Kenitra, Sidi Kacem, Sidi Slimane and Khemisset, across the greater Rabat-Sale region, and further south through Azilal, Beni Mellal, Benslimane, Settat, Mohammedia and Nouaceur, as well as Al Haouz and Agadir Ida-Outanane. A further eight provinces — including Driouch, Nador, Meknes, Ifrane, Khenifra and Midelt — sit at moderate risk.
The agency’s guidance to the public is straightforward: any sign of smoke or suspicious activity near forested areas should be reported to local authorities without delay. Fire-prevention officials say the earliest minutes after ignition are often the decisive window in which a small blaze can still be contained before it turns into an uncontrollable wildfire, a lesson reinforced by several severe fire seasons the country has endured in recent years, particularly in the Rif mountains.
The alert lands at a predictable point on Morocco’s seasonal calendar. Late summer across the Mediterranean basin typically brings a dangerous combination of lingering heat and vegetation left brittle by months of relative drought, a mix that has repeatedly fueled major forest fires in the Rif and Middle Atlas ranges. By publishing a detailed, province-level breakdown well ahead of the weekend, when hiking and camping traffic in the country’s northern and central forests tends to rise, officials appear to be betting that early, specific warnings can help prevention teams mobilize faster than a generic nationwide notice would allow.
For now, no active fires have been reported in connection with this week’s alert — the measure remains precautionary, part of a broader push by Moroccan authorities to shift from reacting to forest fires toward anticipating them.
