Images reveal how climate change is upending life in Moroccan oases

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Morocco - Tafilalt Oasis - On July 2019 a wildfire spread over 3km across the palm grove burning more than 10,000 trees of which 2500 were palm trees. Summer wildfires are due to a combination of extreme temperatures and lying dead trees. which can easily catch fire in the summer months.

Date palms

Mathilde Gattoni

The world oasis are at the forefront of an existential battle against climate change: limited precipitation and increasing heat have dramatically affected these unique ecosystems and the culture they support. Morocco lost two-thirds of its oases – lush, fertile areas in the desert – in a single century.

Morocco - M?hamid - Traditional Amazigh musicians walk in the desert while performing a traditional rain song. Amazigh culture is oral and music plays a big role in transmitting the cultural heritage of the tribe. They sing about their love of the desert and talk about the times when they were nomads.

Local people beg the desert for water

Mathilde Gattoni

Take the town of M’Hamid El Ghizlane, the last stop before the vast arid expanse of the Sahara. Here, local people beg the desert for water (pictured above). Dressed in white robes, they meet regularly at the gates of the desert to recite ancestral songs calling for an end to the drought and the return of life to these lands.

While droughts have always been a part of life here, they were intermittent, allowing people to store food and water to get through periods of drought. But the oasis that sustains the community has shrunk in recent decades, leading to scorched palm trees and threatening centuries of culture and tradition.

Morocco - M?hamid - A villager feeds his camel with herbs picked from the dry bed of the Draa river.

A villager feeds his camel with herbs gathered from the dry bed of the Draa River.

Mathilde Gattoni

The town’s economy has traditionally been based on date palms (main photo) and camel breeding (pictured above), but with these livelihoods under threat, many are resettling to neighboring towns. Those who stay often earn their living through tourism. Former farmers turned self-taught guides offer visitors desert expeditions and tea ceremonies (pictured below) – a preview of life that persists despite challenges.

Morocco - Kasr Bounou - Mina el Bouni, around 55 years old, preparing herbal tea. Mina left her family home in 2008 after it was covered in sand dunes and now lives with her family in her neighbor's house. Kasr Bounou has lost most of its inhabitants due to desertification, only four families still live there.

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