Morocco The Atlas Workshop Open Science Lab. Part I: The modernization of the Higher Education System in Morocco related to Natural Resources Management. Part II: The importance of traditional knowledge and cultural heritage in Agdz’ socio-ecological system

The overall objective of the present work is to provide a tool for assessing modernization within Moroccan Higher Education (HE) of Natural Resources Management (NRM), but also to underline the importance of tradition: Valuing the local knowledge, considering persistent gender structures and cultural heritage. The outcome is meant to be a tool that the concerned institutions can apply as a self-evaluation, which may inspire them to modernize the teaching and learning process as well as the administrative structure. This should not be without reminding of rich tradition and rural knowledge, which is presented in the second part. Part I The first part revises the development of the HE system in Morocco regarding its efforts taken towards modernization and moreover links them to the improvement of education concerning sustainable NRM. It contents reasoning for demanding modern elements within the HE system of NRM in Morocco, a description of the implemented HE model and its elements (teaching and learning as well as administration) and exemplified profiles of universities. Based on this mixed-methods approach, a questionnaire as a tool for self-assessment for interested universities is proposed. Part II In the second part, four individual reports focus on different aspects of the contribution of traditional heritage and the rural population regarding resources management, while taking Agdz’ socio-ecological system into account. The presented aspects are: (1) The agriculture within the oasis, (2) the role of women, (3) culture and water and (4) traditional water techniques.