IUCN

As the World Heritage Convention celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2022, over 1100 sites around the world are recognized as World Heritage - places  that are so valuable to humanity that there conservation has been deemed our collective responsibility. Yet many of these exceptional places face  increasing pressure from diverse types of development projects within and around the sites.

Connectivity conservation is essential for managing healthy ecosystems, conserving biodiversity and adapting to climate change across all biomes and spatial scales. Well-connected ecosystems support a diversity of ecological functions such as migration, hydrology, nutrient cycling, pollination, seed dispersal, food security, climate resilience and disease resistance.

This report presents the results of a broad assessment of the freshwater diversity in four Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) and some key additional sites in the Sebou river basin in Morocco.

Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs) are sites that contribute significantly to the global persistence of biodiversity. The purpose of the Guidelines for using A Global Standard for the Identification of Key Biodiversity Areas is to ensure that KBA identification is based on consistent, scientifically rigorous yet practical methods.

Illegal trade in wildlife has increased dramatically over the past decade; however, so have enforcement efforts aimed at mitigating this threat. Successful enforcement often involves the seizure and confiscation of wild species from diverse taxa of plants, animals and fungi. These confiscations may be parts of non-living specimens in the form of artefacts, food or medicinal products but, in many cases, they involve live individuals.