Participants in a study day, Saturday in Tahla, on the subject of collective lands and their role in development, have strongly called for the abolition of the 1919 Dahir relating to collective lands. During this meeting organised by the Adrar Association, researchers, academics, associative actors, representatives of ethnic communities, elected officials, representatives of unions, and political parties underlined the imperative need to promulgate a new law relating to the management of collective lands. A way, they say, to overcome all the shortcomings and dedicate these lands to development. The 1919 law has, for a long time, no longer been able to meet the aspirations of the populations and rights holders. "These lands have for decades been the object of dilapidation by networks composed of members of local authorities, speculators, and "nouabs" driven by ignorance and their poverty to "collaborate". It is therefore time to rationalise the exploitation of what remains of these lands, with the promulgation of a new law," declared the participants.

They thus called for deep reflection, within the framework of a national colloquium, including all the parties concerned, in order to put an end to a chaotic situation that governs this issue. And to add that the first thing to start with would be the census of collective lands and rights holders. Rational management would also be possible with the will to develop and improve the performance of the representatives of the ethnic communities "nouabs", through the promulgation of a new statute and the holding of training sessions in their favour. "We do not understand until now how the nouabs are chosen, how the development projects financed by the guardianship fund are selected, nor for that matter how we continue in several cases to work with nouabs who no longer have a status, on the legal level," wondered rights holders from several areas of the region.

The meeting, which saw the participation of the Amazigh World Congress (CMA), the Association of Populations of the Mountains of the World (APMM), the Adrar-Boulman Association, and the Taza Youth Pole, notably focused on the possibilities of pushing advocacy in the matter, which should lead to a new law. But one of the recommendations showing the laxity of the State remains the implementation of the conclusions and recommendations of the first national meeting in 1995, which have remained a dead letter.