The salience of local labor organization in Morocco's High Atlas

The High Atlas Mountains of Morocco evince many of the "poverty and livelihood" issues found among mountain communities generally. In particular, High Atlas communities are experiencing environmental degradation that is both a cause and a consequence of acute rural poverty. The mountains are not isolated from the rest of the country, of course. Remy Leveau writes that in 1998 Morocco "ranked 125th in the world on the United Nations Human Development Index. It comes a long way behind Algeria and Tunisia, and even behind Egypt and Syria, looking at the statistics for schooling, health care and per capita GDP". As bad as the wider social situation might be, things are worse in the countryside, where, for instance, 50% of the population resides but only 10% of the education budget is spent. There are few statistical measures specifically of Morocco's mountain areas, though they certainly do not fare any better than the rural case in general.