Towards an approach to educate and communicate about climate change and adaptation in Morocco

Abdellatif Khattabi, Ecole Nationale Forestiere d'Ingenieurs
Diane Pruneau, Université de Moncton

Involving vulnerable communities in adaptations to climate change is challenging. Climate concepts are difficult to understand. Some citizens do not believe that climate change will have impacts on their life. People’s plans are focused on eating, educating their children, having a home. Other challenges include people’s difficulty to perceive gradual environmental changes, the fact that consuming behaviors bring people recognition, rapid decisions made by planners, lack of money and technology to adapt. In Morocco, a survey was conducted to identify citizens’ initial ideas about climate change and impacts. A capacity building approach was designed. Scientists and groups of stakeholders worked together, describing the local environment, choosing a problem for which they had concerns, analyzing the problem and discussing the climate change consequences. They looked at actions and policies that have worsened the problem. They wrote scenarios of what could happen and shared scenarios with the community. They listed possible adaptations.