Increased illegal logging, which may be facilitated by government-employed forest wardens, threatens Morocco’s magnificent native cedars.The Atlas cedars, which are only native to Morocco and Algeria in the Atlas mountains, can take up to 30 years to mature and some are thousands of years old. They grow up to around 35 metres high.“Each year thousands of trees – some of them several centuries old – are illegally felled as many forest wardens turn a blind eye,” human rights activist, Aziz Akkaoui, told AFPNow, the trees which cover 330,000 acres are rapidly disappearing.Several of the Berber-speaking population accuse forest wardens, who are supposed to stop illegal loggers, of collecting bribes to allow loggers to cut down the trees.Akkaoui, who works in the Moroccan Association for Human Rights, says there is a “cedar mafia” – ranging from loggers to government workers to the carpenters who build sturdy expensive furniture from the woods of the conifers.Besides the risk of desertification from the continued illegal cutting of the cedars, it also puts water supplies in danger. The forests retain so much water and are an important water reservoir for all of the country and can protect against floods and soil erosion.You can read the full story here.

Photo ©2007 Derek Ramsey (Ram-Man)