Eco-Tourism in Morocco: Sustainable Travel from the Mountains to the Sahara

Morocco has been investing seriously in sustainable tourism — Ouarzazate is home to Noor, one of the largest concentrated solar power complexes in the world — and travellers can make greener choices too, without giving up comfort.

Mountain lodges

In villages like Imlil, Ourika and Aït Bouguemez in the High Atlas, small lodges are increasingly built from local stone, clay and wood, with solar panels for hot water and kitchens sourcing food from the valley around them rather than trucking it in.

Desert camps

Camps around Merzouga and Erg Chebbi now commonly run on solar power for lighting and water heating, and getting out into the dunes by camel rather than 4×4 keeps the impact on the sand and the quiet to a minimum.

The Atlantic coast

Essaouira's guesthouses have leaned into the town's steady wind, some using wind-generated power, and a number of riads recycle water for their gardens.

Women's cooperatives

Much of Morocco's real argan oil comes from women's cooperatives in the Souss region and around Essaouira, who press it using techniques passed down for generations and reinvest directly in their communities — buying from a cooperative rather than a roadside stall is one of the simplest ways to make sure your money lands where it's meant to.

Wildlife and protected areas

Morocco's national parks — Toubkal, Souss-Massa on the Atlantic coast, Talassemtane near Chefchaouen — protect real, sometimes endangered wildlife, including the Barbary macaque and the northern bald ibis. A local guide who knows where and how to look, without disturbing what you've come to see, makes a genuine difference.

Travelling a little lighter

None of this requires giving anything up: a private driver-guide, a good cooperative, and camps and lodges that have made real changes rather than just claiming to, add up to a trip that leaves less behind. Our day trip to the Atlas Mountains and our Sahara tours both use exactly this kind of local, small-scale accommodation — ask us if it matters to you and we'll build the trip around it.