Merzouga - closure of desert camps?
 

https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/201...ouga-protests/

Any more info on this, as location looks odd:
Desert camp 40km from Merzouga?

I know residents in Merzouga have complained for years about heavy water usage by the numerous auberges. I wasn't aware there were so many bivouac camps, although I've seen an increase at Erg Chegaga.
There was a clampdown on unrestricted building in Merzouga and Hassibalad about 5-6 years back due to the number of new auberges being thrown up.

Will report back when we're in the region next month.

Peter

That's the first 'official' piece of info I've seen. I heard a few weeks ago that it was happening and been sent a video of a camp being dismantled. Reasons so far seem a little vague but I hear rumours that people think some of the big hotels are behind it.


Apparently its just the camps within the dunes and those on the outside are ok, but we'll see what happens.

Changed a lot since my first visit on the piste in a Fiat Uno :D

Hi Mark,

Heard a rumour tonight that some of the auberges are being hoovered up by European hotel groups.


Peter

I came tthro from Mhamid to Touez two weeks ago and all of the auberges at the East end were empty.cant say why:(

More than 80 desert camps were given notice to close and 10-12 have been demolished, so I passed on the information about the forced closures to Juliette at Morocco World News. I also emailed various ONMT (Morocco Tourist Board) offices in Morocco and Europe. I believe nothing has happened since.

More information (close on 60 posts): https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTo...a-Morocco.html

Tony: do you mean the line of 5-6 auberges at Ouzina (after Ramlia and before Taouz)?

Yes Tim plus the one at Sidi Ali on Lac Maider

Lots of vague info going round various outlets about the camp closures at the moment. I think my first information about it was just after Christmas from local friends.

Still nothing official has been seen and MWN and TA info is not that reliable as a source. The most reliable info I have received is from a campsite owner near Merzouga, and that's is from October all camp sites within Erg Chebbi are banned and the recent attempts at clearing camps is the lead up to that. Both licensed and unlicensed camps have been effected.

All of us who have a history in Morocco will have noticed the uncontrolled escalation of hotels, campsites etc around Merzouga and its detrimental effect on the area. I remember my first visit on the piste well with only 2 or 3 campsites available.

Actually the information on TA is very reliable if you read the whole thread with my posts. My information comes directly from two camp owners that I have been in regular contact with, plus several others who are connected to the camps.

It all started a year earlier than that in December 2017 when the hotels were feeling the impact of the success of the luxury desert camps. The hotels wanted the tents to be issued with an authorisation license through them ie each hotel/guesthouse would be responsible for a desert camp. In effect this meant that the hotels would own the desert camp which wasn't agreeable to the camps. Many ideas were bandied around regarding a way forward and the desert camps set up an association to liaise with local administration.

In December 2018 the administration from Errachidia town visited the camps. They confirmed that in principle desert camps could stay, although they also confirmed that there were a small number that were not of acceptable safety/standard/style to continue operating. They advised the camps that they should set up new companies with 'desert camp' as the sole company purpose (some desert camps already had companies with other purposes included eg desert camp and tour company/guesthouse/restaurant) and that on completion the administration would issue licenses.

So the desert camps set up companies. The majority were paying taxes and also paying local taxes direct to the local administration and more began to. Behind the scenes at the local council however was a different matter, a couple of weeks ago without notice there was a sharp about turn. Desert camps were blindsided when removal notices were delivered, workers were brought in from other towns were organised to start to dismantle camps, protected by 200+ military who arrived to Merzouga to discourage protests.

The local administration should not have allowed new desert camps to be created, directing them how to register in order to receive an authorisation license and shouldn't have received tax payments when they were planning to evict them. The camp removal is not for altruistic reasons or for protecting the dunes and the environment. It's because the hotels insisted for this so that visitors stayed at hotel accommodation not at desert camps and also so that rallies could operate through the dunes unhindered which they gain from. (Tuareg Rallye 2019 is being held in Algeria this year).

The first camp to be forcibly demolished was Oubira which is also one of the oldest established (~25 years). Other than TA and MWN there is no warning anywhere to tourists and travellers that the camps are no longer in operation—even now you can make a new booking for Oubira, see https://tinyurl.com/oubira

The instructions to demolish the camps comes from Hamid Bourchouk, President du Conseil Communal de Merzouga, who is a local official said to be on the side of the hotel owners.

The current unconfirmed status is that

* every camp within the Erg Chebbi dunes itself must be removed and without delay (I don't know whether this also includes the dunes of Erg Znaigui to the south of M'fis).

* these camps cannot be re-built and no other new camp erected without legislation/rules being introduced and an authorisation license granted. Also that at a date sometime in the future the camps will probably be permitted to build temporary constructions which conform to certain criteria on the hamada in the specific areas of Tmdnt/Merdani, Kem Kemia and Zniggi, but not within the actual dunes

* the other desert camps already located outside the dunes that have not removed notice will be inspected again and a decision to remove made regarding individual camps.

Interesting to read a bit more of the backstory, and confirms information I've received.

Information on the current issue has been discussed in several outlets other than TA and MWN, while it may not have been raised to more mainstream tourist information sources until the last few weeks, the information has been out there on the internet for a bit longer than the MWN and TA discussion.

At least one rally has been refused permission for a camp for this year that I've heard of.

With regard to Oasis Oubira, I had heard that it was only the tents outside of the land that they owned that were removed and the rest of the camp is ok and operating normally

'The instructions to demolish the camps comes from Hamid Bourchouk, President du Conseil Communal de Merzouga, who is a local official said to be on the side of the hotel owners.'

I wonder why that would be:rolleyes2:












$$$$$$$$$$

Erg Chebbi Merzouga
 

We have been there on the 8th to 9th of April 2019. Was a nice stay, we heard nothing of this topic.

Greets