Dakhla National Park has reached the home stretch to officially become Morocco’s 11th national park. It will also be the largest in terms of area in the kingdom. This place is an essential stopover for migratory birds that come to shelter there during the winter.
Dakhla is known for its lagoon, the water sports carried by the powerful winds of the ocean, and the desert expanse interspersed with shifting dunes. Lovers of nature, fauna and flora can also choose the pearl of the south for its national park.
Covering an area of 14,160 km2, or 1/10 of the province of Oued Eddahab, the Dakhla park project is only waiting for the publication of the decree in the Official Bulletin to thus become Morocco’s 11th national park. Located at the extreme south of the kingdom, the place is part UNESCO Tentative Lists. The dossier was submitted in 1998 by the Cultural Heritage Department.
The Dakhla park contains a “richness in plant groups and fauna specific to areas with a pre-arid climate”, we read on the UNESCO site. The presence of the Monachus monachus monk seal population on the Cap Blanc-Aguerguer peninsula alone justifies its classification as a national park.
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Gannets (Morus bassanus). /DR
The park is also home to a number of Mhorr gazelles reintroduced in 2015. This subspecies of the dama gazelle is endemic to northwest Africa, and is the largest of the current gazelles. It is classified as critically endangered and is part of a breeding program.
Flamingos and other migratory birds
The park includes the bay of Dakhla, which has become a Ramsar site since 2005, since the site meets the Ramsar criteria: Presence of a globally threatened species or 1% of the number of the world population of a given species. “In terms of population, density and number of birds, the Dakhla park meets the Ramsar criteria,” explains Yabiladi, Sidi Imad Cherkaoui, ornithologist and professor at Moulay Ismail University. In addition, the place is located in the east-Atlantic migration axis and perfectly matches the migration route.
During a walk in the bay of Dakhla, you can see flamingos, gannets, spoonbills and many other migratory birds. “A good part of the population of the great cormorant of Morocco, an endemic species, is concentrated in Dakhla”, specifies the scientist. There are also about a hundred species of migratory birds, “seabirds, laro-limicoles, limicoles (like gulls)”.
Flamingos. /DR
Dakhla thus offers you a dive into the ornithological universe as precious as it is fragile, between ocean and desert, of the extreme south of the kingdom. Nature lovers will be delighted with the idyllic setting of this national park.