Oases constitute the main entry point for the promotion of environmental education and the introduction of innovative techniques (energy systems like solar panels or more efficient wood cookers…), and therefore are strategic to ensure the conservation of the larger space of Sahara.

Oases are in danger. A conjunction of natural (prolonged drought, climate change, sand encroachment) and human factors (agricultural crisis, emigration, political instability, lack of attention from governments and international organization) leads to a tragic abandon of these unique ecosystems.

Meanwhile, tourism is booming in the Sahara, though the tourism intensity is still quite low. Relatively recent and spontaneous, this growth is little controlled and directed. Without adequate planning, it could miss the objective of alleviating poverty and contributing to biodiversity conservation.

Crossing this tourism potential and the spatial issue of oasis led TEC and the UNESCO Man and Biosphere (MAB) program to study the feasibility of an international project on sustainable tourism development in Saharan oasis. Uncontrolled, tourism can indeed intensity the pressure on scarcely available local resources (space, water) and endanger local societies without really contributing to local development.

Well planned, it could become a leverage for a symbolic valorisation of oasis, a complement of income for local and societies, and contribute of the financing of nature conservation. Tourism is then not only an alternative, but also a complement that makes traditional systems of production more valuable since they are favored by tourists. Experience proves that tourism can be the deciding factor of a rejuvenation of oasis ecosystems.

New tourism products and activities more clearly oriented towards nature and biodiversity could become a strong incentive for nature conservation, and fund directly the management of protected areas (entrance fees, visitors payback schemes…).

They could also, indirectly, generate revenues for local societies to maintain their agro systems, and provides a strong argument to combat desertification and sand encroachment in previously abandoned environments. In the Moroccan Drâ valley or in the Mauritanian Adrar, tourism plays this positive role.

UNESCO-MAB project, which is currently elaborated, will study and implement concrete actions, at national and local level, tackling the complexity of interrelationships between tourism, development, biodiversity conservation and desertification. The project will benefit of the achievements of UNESCO “Sahara of culture and people project”, implemented since 2002, and which already established a platform for regional cooperation on Saharan tourism.