Ecological crime in Essaouira: A centuries-old tree massacred

A new ecological disaster. Essaouira has just lost one of its beautiful and attractive tourist and ecological monuments. It is a tree dating back two centuries according to consistent testimonies, located in the heart of the artisanal complex, whose phenomenal branches have just been cut under circumstances around which versions and positions diverge, sparking feelings of bitterness and indignation among citizens. Civil society, represented by the Moroccan Association for the Protection of Animals and Plants, has just filed a lawsuit against the managers of the artisanal complex and the delegate of the Ministry of Handicrafts in Essaouira.The said association, aware of its objectives and the missions assigned to it, and of the historical and ecological value of this ancestral tree, qualifies its deforestation as a crime against the environment and an illegal act committed by those respo…