Morocco.. Proposal to Use Satellite Technology for Counting Nomadic Tribes

Statistics from 2014 revealed a 63% decrease in the population of nomadic people in Morocco, dropping to 25,274 individuals in the latest census, representing 7 per 10,000 people of the total population of the kingdom. Currently, there are questions in Morocco, just months before the general population census, regarding how this process will include nomadic tribes that have an unstable way of living. Local sources have mentioned additional questions concerning this demographic, such as "the number of tents available to the family and whether they have a built house." Conversely, there are inquiries about how to monitor these nomadic individuals who move in response to drought and water scarcity, leading to the possibility of "accelerated movement in search of water," or whether the methods used in 2014, which involved gathering data through tribal chiefs and leaders, will be maintained. The 2014 census figures indicated that three-quarters of the nomadic population in Morocco are distributed across the regions of Tinghir, Midelt, Assa-Zag, and Errachidia, with a moderate distribution in the regions of Guelmim, Taza, Zagora, Boujdour, and Tarfaya. The proposal to use satellites and even drones as a suggested method by Abdul Jalil Hosseini, a former official and participant in the 2014 census, aims to track the locations of nomadic families.