The Break-up of the Ksar: Changing Settlement Patterns and Environmental Management in Southern Morocco

In spite of the French colonial intrusion, up to the 1950s, resource management in Saharan villages constituted what some have called the syndrome of collectivity. The syndrome of collectivity was the product of three interrelated factors: the Ksar, or a nucleated settlement pattern, ethnicity, and village-drawn constitutions. Since Independence, however, the Ksar's compact and nucleated settlement began to break up. I argue that the break-up of the Ksar and the emergence of a dispersed settlement pattern have led to signifi cant erosion in village institutions governing the commons. In addition to the appropriate emphasis on environmental strategies in the literature, I also contend that refl ection upon settlement change and dynamic ethnic relations is critical to crafting sustainable environmental strategies in the new millennium.