Dakhla: A New Regional Plan to Boost Aquaculture

The National Aquaculture Development Agency (ANDA) wishes to update the aquaculture plan for the Dakhla-Oued Ed-Dahab region by adapting it to the evolution of the sector and its challenges. Indeed, after several years of implementing the region’s aquaculture plan, during which the situation of space occupation by aquaculture projects has evolved and new challenges in planning and development have emerged, the Agency has seen the importance of updating this plan, on the one hand, to comply with the new regulatory framework for aquaculture in Morocco (Law 84-21) and, on the other hand, to adapt its orientations to the changes that have occurred in the socioeconomic, environmental, and technical data used for its development.

In this regard, for a budget of 4.7 million dirhams (MDH), ANDA is launching this study to develop the new aquaculture development plan as well as the aquaculture structure projects for the region and prepare the related strategic environmental assessment. It is seeking a service provider who will have 490 days to complete this mission.

Through this study, ANDA aims to reconsider the aquaculture planning exercise by relying on updated and supplemented data and on a consensus of the relevant stakeholders, and to develop the new mapping of sites suitable for aquaculture both at sea and on land in the region.

The land-based sites concern both spaces dedicated to establishing onshore bases for logistical support to offshore aquaculture farms and spaces reserved for the establishment of marine aquaculture farms, with the goal of generating new investment opportunities in aquaculture in the region and promoting aquaculture development in the region.