Abstract
At the turn of the millennium, the idea that the Moroccan forestry administration’s modes of action were changing was much publicised. There were claims that “concerted forest management” would alter the historically conflictual relationships between foresters and farmers and in this way the ecological status of forests would be improved. However, the innovations proposed and implemented through pilot projects funded by public aid to development took place in a legislative framework that was largely inherited from the French protectorate. Looking at Moroccan forestry legislation retrospectively, this articles shows that a doctrine in forest management imported from the Nancy School of Forestry continues to be the cornerstone for current practices that are the source of social problems targeted by the very innovations mentioned above; and that these problems had already, at the time of the protectorate, caused serious conflict between the forestry administration and the indigenous affairs department, with the latter urging the forestry administration to recognise rural populations as partners in the framework of provisions that might easily be mistaken for those considered today to be innovations