The strategy, planning support studies and the action plan developed by the High Commission for Water and Forests and the Fight against Desertification led to the development of the National Forest Programme (NFP) in 1998, which constitutes the strategic framework for the sustainable development of the forest sector by 2020. It specifies the global and detailed objectives of the strategy, the priority programs for the next five years to achieve these objectives, the main micro-economic and legal, institutional, financial and organizational consequences of the proposed choices, and the expected results.

1. Objectives of the National Forest Programme

• Soil protection and water regulation
• The contribution to the socio-economic development of rural populations;
• The protection of biodiversity and the environment;
• The production of wood for industry and crafts;
• The production of services (landscapes, relaxation and leisure) for urban populations.

1.1. Priority goals at 5 years

To reach the 20-year goals, an essential first step of five years must be taken. At the end of this deadline, the following objectives must be achieved:

• All priority change management programmes will be launched and will begin to be implemented;
• The major current programmes should be reoriented in order to be consistent with the choice of the National Forest Programme;
• The credibility of the will and the capacity to stop and reverse the process of degradation of natural and forest areas will be effective.

1.2. Objectives at 20 years

At the end of 20 years, forest areas must maintain their multifunctional vocation while achieving the following main objectives in practice:

a. Water and soil

• the level of water erosion causing the siltation of dams, currently 50 to 60 million m3 per year, will be reduced by half and the risks of natural disasters will be limited.

b. Socio-economic development of rural populations

• The standard of living of the poorest rural populations, especially in the mountains, will have stopped deteriorating and will have caught up with the average standard of living in the country.
• Natural forest areas will further contribute to the economic and social development of these populations within the framework of sustainable management.

c. Protection of biodiversity

• The degradation of biodiversity will be stopped and the reintroduction of species will be intensified in specialized areas managed for this purpose.
• The economic potential of this biological wealth will be valued.

D. Wood production for industry and crafts

• The sustainable production of lumber and quality products (cedar, cedar, cedar, cork) and that of pulpwood and panels will be intensified in specialized areas also managed for this purpose.
• These products will be valued by modernized economic channels. The added value of these raw and processed products will be doubled.

e. Production of services

• The main urban agglomerations will have managed species for reception, relaxation and leisure. the international standard being 10 m2 per inhabitant;
• The remarkable natural and forest areas will be economically valued for tourism purposes.

The objectives, program elements, and planning tools are described in the following table:

Objectives Program elements Scheduling tool Safeguarding and maintaining forest heritage   Delineation and resolution of the legal base of forests Continuous inventory of surfaces and resources Equipment and forest protection National forest inventory Boundary program Firefighting master plan Manage and enhance productive resources Reforestation Forest management Valorization of wood production Valorization of non-wood production. Reforestation master plan Forest Management Plan Sector organization programs Conserve the soil and fight against erosion Watershed management Fight against silting Agroforestry     National watershed management plan. Preserving and promoting the biodiversity of natural environments Management of national parks and protected areas Management of sensitive environments and species Hunting and cygenetics Inland fisheries and aquaculture Protected Areas Master Plan Promote the development of forest and periforest areas Conservation and development of forest resources Hydro-agricultural and land developments Intensification of plant and animal production Strengthening socio-economic infrastructures Intersectoral integrated development projects.

2. National framework

The fundamental objective of the national forest policy is the conservation and sustainable development of the forest, within the framework of the guidelines resulting from the 1996 national forest symposium.

• Achieving this objective requires taking into account all environmental data and integrating them into a global strategy based on three axes:

• forest heritage management,
• the development of peri-forest areas and
• the development of partnership actions.

3. Regional and international framework

• the National Forest Programme is also a response to the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), which called on all countries to establish and implement national forest action programs and/or plans for the management, conservation and development of their forests.
• For their part, the Mediterranean countries agreed on the concept of a Mediterranean Forest Action Programme, which was designed as a conceptual framework to help the countries concerned in revising their forest policies and in planning my implementation.

4. The national forest program: an ambition, a desire and a method

• The ambition: Reverse the degradation process

It is an objective that is not only at the service of the forest but of the country and its inhabitants. The current degradation of forest areas cannot be reversed quickly; efforts must be sustainable.

• The will: To act in partnership

To meet the challenge of saving the forest in the interests of the country, foresters cannot act alone. The challenge is global and all the actors concerned must be mobilized.

• The method: Driving change gradually and in two phases

• a first phase of 5 years will gradually launch action plans aimed at managing the characteristic changes in forest policy;
• a second phase of 5 years will implement the main changes in priorities and actions in forest policy and land management, in accordance with the strategic choices made.

In order to implement the strategy and the action programmes, action will be needed:

• on the forest sector environment;
• on the human resources of the forest sector;
• on decision-making processes;
• on structures and resources;
• on legislation and taxation.

• Environmental actions in the forest sector;

- Rural and mountain forestry:

Improve the living standards of rural populations, especially in the poorest mountain areas, as they are the most affected by climatic and physical disabilities.

- Management and substitution of wood energy in rural areas

A policy will be gradually implemented, particularly in rural mountain areas. Actions will be taken to increase the substitution of wood by gas by combining fiscal incentives with equipment promotion and extension operations.

- Course management

The sustainable management of silvo-pastoral systems requires a global approach of voluntary partnership involving all user farmers. Groups of interlocutors must be formed

then established as organizations to manage their own travel fees and State investments. They should receive technical support from development agents in the ministries concerned.

- Water management

An organization of multiple actions within the framework of watershed agencies is suggested in order to progress in the partnership approach and to focus the means of intervention with flexibility in a very broad consultation of the projects of the various State services.

• Actions on human resources

- Human resources management:

Technical skills should be updated and above all complemented by skills in animation, sociology and rural economy. Administrative staff should be stabilized and then reduced in accordance with the pace of transfer of operational skills to various private actors and communities.

- Communication

Changes in strategy, policies and practices can only be effective if the people involved become the agents of change. They should be clearly informed and involved in the development of actions.

Actions on decision-making processes

- Deconcentration

Increased deconcentration will aim to improve the responsiveness of foresters to meet the local needs of populations and actors and thus actively prepare a second phase during which broad forest policy responsibilities in the field will be transferred to local populations, local authorities and private actors.

- Population participation and contracting

One of the important objectives will be to empower local populations to the sustainable protection and economic and social valorization of forest areas. To this end, real powers and duties and duties will effectively be given progressively to these populations.

- Decentralization

At the end of 10 years, if major forest policy decisions remain within national competence, regional authorities will be able to adapt the rules for protection and economic and social development to the specificity and needs of regions. Decentralization of forest management decisions can be more rapid and will ensure a transfer of economic actors and NGOs.

- Inter-ministeriality

The evaluation of these decision-making processes should also concern other departments, which must be genuinely involved in decisions and participate more widely in the coordinated financing of actions.

• Actions on structures and resources

- Evolution of administrative structures

Instead of wanting to do everything and everywhere, choices will be made and respected in accordance with the financial resources that can be mobilized and the realism of the technical, social or cultural capacity of the actors.

- Creation of project structures.

During the first phase, the deconcentration of water and forest services will be strengthened and increased for project management. For the second phase, an in-depth reform will be undertaken in order to redefine the respective roles and responsibilities of the various actors in the management of the domain.

Municipalities and regions will have to gradually acquire tools for managing forest areas and in particular tools for contracting with local populations. While autonomous project structures will need to be created to take care of major projects.

- Creation of specialization structures

Forest areas, which must maintain their global multifunctionality, will be specialized according to their dominant vocation and the priority needs to be met in local contexts: water protection, local economic development, wood production, biodiversity and landscape, biodiversity and landscape, relaxation and landscape, relaxation and leisure the main themes of specialization.

• on legislation and taxation

- Reorientation of laws and regulations

A gradual overhaul of all forest legislation will be necessary in order to replace the repressive and state property regime with a legislative and regulatory body that favors contractual dynamics in particular with local populations, economic and social development, economic and social development, economic and social development, the plurality of management actors, territories and new methods of land distribution will be studied.

- Revision of taxation

To improve the effectiveness of this forest legislation, it will be necessary to complement it with specific legislation for the development and protection of mountain areas.