• 1 This American ecological foundation’s website offers, in particular, an informative monitoring of s (...)
• 2 Sand is used in construction, industry, agriculture and transport infrastructures as well as in the (...)

1Sand gives us much food for thought. Some publications have highlighted its importance in the technical, ecological, social, symbolic and aesthetic lives of different human groups (Boulay and Gélard, 2013; Roccella and Varichon, 2006), while others have looked more specifically at sand-dependent tourist resort practices through the investment made in beaches by contemporary urban societies (particularly Corbin, 1988; Lageiste, 2008). More recently, studies have shown the complexity of the scientific, socioeconomic and environmental challenges that sand presents as a natural resource (Welland, 2009). In addition, journalistic investigations (Delestrac, 2013 and 2015; Beiser, 2015) and the action of various associations and NGOs (for example, the Peuple des dunes en Trégor collective and the Awaaz and Santa Aguila foundations1) has raised the public’s awareness of the serious and underestimated consequences of extracting and transporting sand (ecological pollution and degradation, marine and fluvial erosion, soil salinisation, loss of biodiversity, etc.). Sand is an indispensable raw material, and it is being increasingly exploited, very often informally and/or illegally, across the globe (UNEP, 2015). Increased demand and the proliferation in uses mean that sand has become if not rare then at least sought-after and sometimes conflictual (fig.1)2. Localised endeavours to protect coasts from marine erosion, create artificial islands and polders and attract international tourists by creating or maintaining white sandy beaches mean that the supply of sand to coastal tourist resorts and urbanized coastal areas worldwide has now become generalised.

• 3 Merzouga is the main town in the commune of Taouz (or Et-Taous), located in the south of Tafilalt. (...)

3Based on the analysis of an illuminating case of sand that has been constructed as a territorial resource (Gumuchian and Pecqueur, 2007; Landel, Gagnol and Oiry-Varacca, 2014), the present article proposes to discuss this hypothesis of the specification and anchorage of sand as a resource. More specifically, the hypothesis will be considered from the point of view of a particular, localised type of sand, namely sand dunes, or ergs, in the tourist spots of the Moroccan desert, which attract mass numbers of national and international visitors every year. Sand is a vital economic resource in these regions with a high touristic and therapeutic added value. It also appears to be the main driving force behind the development of these isolated, marginalised areas in the Moroccan Pre-Saharan borders. This article seeks to prove this is the case through an analysis of the tourism development trajectory of the small town of Merzouga (using M’Hamid El Ghizlane as a point of comparison3). Merzouga relies on a dual psammotourism. Psammotourism refers to sand-based tourist activities that view sand as a resource that is specific to a particular territory. In the case we will focus on here, psammotourism involves, on the one hand, the practice of sand baths, a form of health tourism generated mainly by Moroccan therapy enthusiasts, and, on the other, the more classic form of desert tourism that is based on organised excursions in the sand dunes, which is targeted at a mainly international, particularly European clientele. The experiential and sensory dimensions of psammotourism are fundamental to it. Tourists literally immerse themselves in a very specific environment, namely the desert sand, either through voluntary burial in the sand or through the involuntary, transient imprints of their journey on the sand during their excursions in the dunes (whether from their own or their camels’ footprints or from the tracks left behind by their vehicle).

• 4 The development of mining, which had begun during the colonial period in the form of a state-owned (...)

5According to the oral memory of its inhabitants, Merzouga was only founded as a sedentary settlement and gravitational centre for the Aït Khebbach Berber tribe (part of the Aït Atta confederation) during the period of French colonisation, or from the 1930s onwards. This desert region had long resisted the central authority of the Makhzen and the colonial power. Strongly marked by nomadism, pastoralism and the trading caravan activities, this region suffered its first blow from the consequences of colonisation, which saw the tribes’ movements restricted and the disappearance of the protection that had been set up for oasis communities (extending from Rteb and Tafilalt in Morocco to Gourara and Touat in what is now Algeria, that is, an area almost 1,000 km long). The subsequent development of agriculture and mining (particularly the lead mines at Mfis4) and the demarcation of the borders following first Moroccan and then Algerian independence forced nomadism into a dynamic of involution (Lefébure, 1986), that is, a slow process of retraction. It subsequently suffered a second blow in the 1970s and 1980s.

• 5 The closing and surveillance of the southeastern Moroccan border has clearly not stopped the flow o (...)
• 6 The trajectory described here for Merzouga has been identical to that of M’Hamid since the El Manso (...)

6After the Sand War events of 1963, there was a breakdown in relations between Morocco and Algeria in 1975 following the annexation of the Western Sahara (the breakdown was reiterated in 1994 with the official closure of the border5). Until the 1970s, the Aït Khebbach populations had always lived off their mobility capital, not only through trading activities in the desert, mountains and oases but also by playing on the terms of trade and the complementarity of resources within a trade network that had become both cross-border (the borders resulting from two countries’ independence) and mechanised (by lorry). The collapse of pastoralism following an increased number of severe droughts (especially those in 1974 and at the beginning of the 1980s) and the construction of the Hassan Addakhil dam to the north of Errachidia in 1971 (plus a whole host of other secondary hydraulic works) led to a sharp decline not only in pastoral practices but also in risky flood-recession cereal farming (maâder), mainly because of the disappearance of the wadi floodplains6.

• 7 M’Hamid, the other tourism hotspot in the Moroccan desert, has experienced the same trajectory both (...)
• 8 In the Merzouga region, the first bivouac was created at the beginning of the 1980s at Ras el Erg, (...)
• 9 For the past few years, many motorhome travellers (often French retirees), often derisively referre (...)
• 10 In Morocco, this expression refers to the informal guides who lay in wait for tourists and accost t (...)

8Tourism began in Morocco during the colonial period, but it was not until the 1970s that the first backpackers appeared in southeast Morocco, a destination that was considered to be original and marginal. However, although a municipal hostel was set up in Merzouga in 1975, there has been a requirement since that date for tourists to be led by guides from recognised agencies (from Marrakech, Rabat, etc.) and to stay overnight in Erfoud, the main town in Tafilalt7. International tourism in the Merzouga region did not really begin to develop until the end of the 1980s, as evidenced by the creation of the first touristic infrastructures. It began with a handful of locals offering mint tea under a tent to tourists who had come to climb the dunes at sunrise and sunset8. Encouraged by the first tour operators who were looking for partners living in the location, some former nomadic families then founded the first local tourist agencies, offering méharées (camel treks) for a day, a few days or even a few weeks. Tourism activity gradually took shape and experienced strong growth at the beginning of the 2000s (see map, fig. 2) following the installation of telephone lines (1995), electricity (1998) and drinking water conveyance (2003) as well as the tarmacking of the road from Rissani (begun in 2002 and finished in 2005) and the Merzouga’s connection to a mobile phone network (2000) and the Internet (2005). The tents fitted out as Moroccan tearooms were replaced by the first adobe family hostels. Today, these are real hotels (with a few dozen beds maximum), which have been gradually adapted to meet with the standards of international tourism (hot showers, international cuisine, wifi, accommodation for motorhome travellers9, etc.). Hence, the informal (peddling and rogue ‘guides’10) and formal (boutiques, bazaars, tourist agencies and transport providers) tourism economy that is associated with activities specific to the desert, particularly the guided excursions in the dunes for Western tourists (whether on foot and/or on camels or in motorised vehicles, such as motorbikes, quads and four-by-fours), has taken shape. Despite these upgrades and a diversification of the activities offered, the length of tourists’ stays in Merzouga remains short. The méharées (long-haul itinerant tourist caravans) are now a marginal activity compared with the more rushed standard excursions type of tourism (half a day or a night in a bivouac). Merzouga (and M’Hamid to a lesser extent) is an obligatory stop-off point during a trip to Morocco that includes a detour to the desert in both the individual tours and those organised by international tour operators. These half-day express tours allow tourists to climb the dunes at sunrise or sunset, meet the ‘nomads’ and return to their hotel in Erfoud. Nevertheless, the majority of tourists do not tend to pass up a night in a bivouac, the ersatz nomadic camps and tents. From the 2000s onwards in particular, bivouacs, which were mobile at first but are now permanent structures (with concrete foundations), have been set up in the heart of the dune zones (fig. 3), particularly in the Erg Chebbi (fig. 4), by local actors (often the hostel or local agency owners). There are now about sixty of them.

• 11 For a more detailed presentation of the touristic development of the Moroccan southeast, see Bouaou (...)

9Running in parallel and in concomitance with this touristic exploitation of the dunes11 has been the gradual development of another type of sand resource, targeted at a quite different, mainly national, clientele, namely sand baths.

• 12 Also variously called psammotherapy, psammatotherapy, arenotherapy and sablotherapy depending on th (...)
• 13 In the absence of any precise official statistics on touristic activity, it is very difficult to qu (...)

10Acting as a kind of natural sauna, sand baths undertaken for the purposes of therapy or wellbeing12 are not specific to southeast Morocco nor even to North Africa. The practice takes place discreetly in different places all over the world, most notably in desert regions (in the Maghreb, Central Asia and China) but also in volcanic and seaside locations (particularly in Japan). They were prevalent in Europe until the beginning of the 20^th century in the Mediterranean and Atlantic seaside resorts (including the Black Sea and the Baltic). Although they are no longer undertaken in the open-air, they still exist in some thalassotherapy centres and spas (either on tables or in bathtubs with artificially heated sand). In Morocco, Merzouga is the sand bath hotspot. It is the most well-known and well-frequented13 site in the country owing to the quality of the sand at Erg Chebbi, which is lined with recently built villages and hotel infrastructures (see fig. 2).

• 14 The Saharans do not or only rarely suffer from these illnesses. The sand-based treatments that were (...)

11The immersion of the body in the sand is nothing new in southeast Morocco. Gélard (2014) correctly highlighted its ancestral origins as being in the Berber medical and cultural traditions. However, what we see in Merzouga today – in this form and on this scale – is relatively recent. In the 1980s, the pioneer was thought to have been a Belgian doctor who was said to have travelled to Merzouga to treat his rheumatism and to have demonstrated the benefits of this treatment to the local populations who, intrigued, had come to question him. Another local account, however, claims that it was a Moroccan specialist doctor from Casablanca who had recommended it to one of his compatriots who had emigrated to Europe. Even though these two versions of the origins of sand baths in Merzouga differ, they nevertheless both stress their exteriority. It was the perspective of an outsider, armed with medical legitimacy, who raised awareness among local actors of the therapeutic potential of this practice for a non-native clientele and therefore of its importance for the local economy and all the possible benefits that anchoring it to the local area might bring. Transmission to the local actors was almost instantaneous because the practice was based on readjusted ancient uses14.

• 15 Holiday lets have recently sprung up, directed at both the wealthy Moroccan sand bath clientele and (...)

15Because they come in family groups or with friends (generally relatively elderly) and because they often only have modest financial means, most therapy clients lodge with a local inhabitant15, who they will have been introduced to by a rogue ‘guide’. However, this poses some moral difficulties regarding cohabitation for the local populations, who are reluctant to welcome ‘strangers’ into their own domestic space. Hence, a distance is maintained between the household and the therapy clients, who are given accommodation in a separate part of the house that has been specifically extended for the purpose (for further details on this point, see Gélard, op. cit.). Moreover, because the sand bath sites are situated on the first dunes, which are in contact with the last houses, they participate in the urbanisation of the length of Erg Chebbi and the densification of the two villages situated there, Merzouga and Hassilabiad. These two villages now have a tendency to agglomerate through, on the one hand, the intensive construction of hostels and houses and, on the other, the absorption of once-separate neighbouring ‘districts’ or ‘hamlets’. However, despite the proliferation of new builds, it is still difficult to find accommodation at the height of the season (in July and particularly in August). When all the rooms and terraces are full, some therapy clients will find a spot near a well in the palm groves and camp out there, while some even set up camp in the streets, particularly in Merzouga’s main square, where most of the commercial activity is concentrated.

• 16 The clients are given the ironic nickname of ‘sandfish’ (a type of Saharan lizard) and are mockingl (...)
• 17 The women keep their clothes on and generally only have their legs and/or pelvis covered with the s (...)

16Sand bath clients have to be assisted by an accompanying person from the village. This is often someone from their host family or, if not, someone who works at the site (these assistants can be found in the private purpose-built bivouacs). Once they have been paid, the assistant digs the pits in the sand in the morning to give them time to warm up. During the hottest part of the day (between 11 am and 5 pm), the therapy clients set off in small groups for their ‘tombs’16. The men undress down to a pair of shorts and lie down17. Using a shovel, the guide covers them with sand up to their chests or necks and makes sure their heads are shaded (with a parasol or a rug suspended between two palm tree branches). The burial generally only lasts a few minutes (generally between 5 and 10 minutes — although it can occasionally be up to 30 minutes — depending on the heat, the client’s level of sand baths experience and their health). The guide assists them during immersion (to rehydrate regularly) and then helps them up when they are finished (because hypotension, caused by vasodilation, can lead to dizziness), wrapping them immediately in a large blanket to keep them warm (cheap blankets also used as packsaddles on the camels). The clients are then accompanied back to the tent or their accommodation, where they lie down and rest, sipping hot tea infused with medicinal plants. After this, they are allowed to have something to eat and drink (tepid water) before finally being able having a hot shower. This process takes place once or twice a day for the clients and is repeated over a few days (the length of stay varies from two/three days to a week but rarely more than ten days).

• 18 A Korean acupuncturist established in Fez also spends the summer season in Mergouza.
• 19 On the relationship with the desert (badiya) and its heritagisation in Arab countries, see in parti (...)
• 20 The well-known spas at Hammat Moulay Hachem and particularly Hammat Moulay Ali Cherif are recommend (...)
• 21 Moreover, some think, on the quiet, that the sand baths are an effective way of combatting impotenc (...)

17A whole host of seasonal businesses have sprung up around the sand baths. Responding to the needs of therapy clients in terms of their stay in Merzouga as well as their treatment, other complementary resources have been exploited. Dozens of itinerant traders from the Tafilalt region set up in Merzouga during the season as herbalists, butchers (selling camel meat in particular), masseurs, healers18, and vendors selling blankets, hats and turbans, fruit and vegetables, dates, orange juice, crêpes and fritters, and so on. A few semi-nomadic livestock farmers bivouac nearby with their dairy camels (fig. 7). Camel’s milk, which is relatively expensive to produce, is renowned for its health benefits and is an integral part of the treatment (fig. 8). Furthermore, infusions of aromatic and medicinal plants, which are presented as typically Saharan, are added to the tea, and camel’s brains or fat from their humps are used in massages. Sand baths are thus an essential component of a stay in a desert environment, which is considered to be authentic and invigorating19, combining the purity of the sand, the healthy dry climate and the consumption of specific types of food. There is a mystical dimension too associated with this treatment, conceived of as a purification of the mind as well as the body. A visit to Tafilalt’s mosques and the saints’ mausoleums along with a trip to the thermal waters20 is also therefore sometimes part of the treatment itinerary, which aims to arrive at either a cure or else at a revitalisation and reinvigoration21 for the rest of the year.

• 22 While, in Merzouga, many of the festivals that have been created have not lasted, two rival festiva (...)
• 23 For example, tourism maintains camel farming and the skills needed to train and drive them. However (...)

18Sand baths therefore represent, for the urban Moroccan therapy fan, a healing or wellbeing remedy through immersion in the sand. More broadly, this restorative experience in a healthy, authentic environment is seen as a return to the Bedouin origins of their ancestors. In that sense, this imaginary desert world links up with the Western tourists’ search for exoticism, who come to discover the authentic nomadic lifestyle and find escapism through an excursion into the dunes and a night in a bivouac (Cauvin-Verner, 2008). In response to the expectations of the tourists and spa enthusiasts, nomadic heritage is displayed through both tangible and intangible markers (the itinerant journey, the camels, the tents and bivouacs, the gandurah and tagelmust clothing, the songs and dances, the cuisine, such as dates, the bread cooked in the sand, the aromatic and medicinal herbs, and so on). In fact, there is currently a heritagisation of these markers through their mobilisation for identity, political and commercial purposes, as evidenced, for example, by the cultural festivals that promote the nomadic and Saharan cultures22. This process of identity display and of showcasing local specificities (crafts, local produce) is supported by the local and central authorities as well as by associated foreign partners. Merzouga’s psammotourism thus ensures some form of continuity in the transmission of practices, expertise and inherited and rehabilitated identities23, but it is not exempt from folklorisation.

• 24 With the exception of one Spanish owner, who has a bivouac and two hotels (soon to be three), one o (...)
• 25 The women of Merouza only rarely work in tourism. The majority of cooks and housekeepers come from (...)

20Focusing too much on the negative effects of tourism relating to the breakdown of local societies, most of the studies on southern Morocco (Bentaleb, 2013, Borghi et al., 2011, Bouaouinate, 2008, Dekkari 2013, Minvielle et al., 2007) have neglected the social structures and relationships of power that have to be engaged in the renewal and control of the resource. As we have seen, in Merzouga, the innovations in terms of tourism development should be seen in an informal and familial context. There is an almost total absence of hotel chains24, with the majority of establishments and tourist agencies being locally owned. This familial aspect is promoted because it serves as a gauge of the authenticity sought by Western clientele. The first heads of family to have invested in tourism have gradually managed to improve the accommodation facilities in Merzouga, which have grown from simple tents to hotels with restaurants and swimming pools. These are now seen as a symbol of material success. This has been accomplished through a diversification of tourist attractions (for example, by offering vehicle and camel hire and setting up bivouacs in the dunes). Being an owner also, finally, means being able to give your younger brothers, sons and cousins jobs25 in line with their skills and requirements, for example as a housekeeper, activities organiser, cook, chauffeur, guide, camel driver or sand bath assistant.

• 26 This internal control in the village also extends to the tourists. As one of our interlocutors conf (...)
• 27 It is no longer uncommon to find hostels that have a swimming pool, air conditioning, a terrace wit (...)
• 28 Literally, the ‘leeches spring’ but renamed the ‘sacred oasis’ for the tourists, Oum Lalaag is a sm (...)

22Hence, the dynamics of tourism investments and innovations play out in changing contexts of intrafamilial and interfamilial solidarity and rivalry. In a village and tribal environment, where everyone knows everyone else’s business26, an innovation does not stay isolated for very long. The tourism stakeholders fall into line very quickly by adopting it, which leads to ever-increasing numbers of facilities and levels of comfort27. Some local actors find this lamentable because they think Merzouga is just blindly forging ahead towards a banalisation of the tourist activities on offer. The rivalry between families can, for example, lead to duplicate festivals, which operate on a competition rather than a complementary basis. In M’Hamid, the success of the Festival International des Nomads has given rise to the creation of the Festival Taragalte, which mainly targets Western clientele. Finally, rivalries for the control of access to certain favoured sites has led to increased pressure on real estate in the tribal collective lands. The private appropriation of bivouac sites (at Erg Chebbi at the foot of the largest dunes) and even of entire palm groves, such as at Oum Lalaag near M’Hamid28, now attracts rivalries, although these do not result in open conflicts because the local collective regulatory frameworks still seem to be in force. However, a victim of its own success, tourism in the Merzouga dunes could enter a downward spiral as the conditions for reproducing the resource are increasingly compromised.

• 29 Only one hotel has been built in the reg, a fair distance away from the dune, but it soon closed be (...)

23Merzouga has thus undergone spectacular development. The commune of Taouz has grown from 1,400 inhabitants in 1998 to around 5,000 in 2006 and to more than 7,000 today, not to mention its floating seasonal population. There were seven hostels in 1987, 35 in 1997, 71 in 2007 (Bouaouinate, 2008: 101) and 98 in 2014 (according to an inventory compiled by a research unit from data collected on site and from hotel reservation websites; 84 according to the director of the Drâa-Tafilalt Centre Régional d’Investissement [regional investment centre]). According to Popp in 2001 (cited in Bouaouinate, 2008: 98), although the statistics may only be approximate, Erg Chebbi is without doubt the most frequently visited dune complex in the Sahara. The sprawl of new constructions and the extension and densification of the builds have turned the western fringe of Erg Chebbi into a ‘desertfront’. Could this currently unplanned linear urbanisation at the foot of the dunes29 be a ‘psammic’ or ‘sandy shore’ resort in the medium term, in other words a touristic bathing resort in the desert?

• 30 The catastrophic floods of May 2006 have demonstrated the risks of unsupervised touristic developme (...)
• 31 It is clear that Morocco is having real difficulty in developing the desert as a specific tourist a (...)

24The Moroccan state, which has for a long time kept out of matters relating to tourist activities (except for issuing authorisation for private projects), has finally shown an interest and intervened to control development in Merzouga30. With the official objective in the Draa-Tafilalt region being to increase the number of tourist visits from 880,000 in 2010 to 1.8 million, the Ministry of Tourism’s rural tourism development strategy states that rural tourism has been ‘insufficiently exploited, even though it has been excessively exploited in some areas, such as around Erg Chebbi’ (translated from the French) (cited in Bouaouinate, 2008: 97)31. Priority has, for now, been given over to combatting aspects that are considered to be anarchic, with a primary focus on the rogue ‘guides’. In the past, before the road was tarmacked, these rogue ‘guides’ would accompany tourists from Rissani (where the direction of Merzouga on the signposts is still blacked out, fig. 9). However, the tarmacking of the road and the introduction of traffic signs and GPS made them redundant. They then began to wait at the entrance to Merzouga, where the tourists would find themselves at a bit of a loss trying to find their hotel (which they had often booked on the Internet). Some of the rogue ‘guides’ would not hesitate to change the direction of a competing hostel owner’s sign or even to take it down altogether (fig. 10). In order to resolve these disagreements as well as the visual pollution from the proliferation of signs, the state has recently installed standardised signage, showing the names of the accommodation, at certain points on the route (fig. 11). As a result, the rogue ‘guides’ have deserted the entrance to the village, with some stationing themselves in the main square, which has recently been equipped with street furniture, and others taking up position at the tricky points on the desert trails, where they wait for hours for a vehicle to get stuck in the sand and then offer their assistance.

• 32 It is called the Projet de protection et de valorisation par le tourisme durable de zones fragiles (...)

25A more integrated plan seems to be taking shape to resolve the increasing conflicts of use at Erg Chebbi. It is difficult to reconcile the use of quads with camels (who get frightened) or the tourists who come to do a yoga course, watch the stars or experience life with the nomads with the organisation of rallies (it is an obligatory stage in all Moroccan rallies). The tourism stakeholders, through a professional association set up in 2004 at the instigation of the Ministry of the Interior, has already decided to ban the construction of hotels on the eastern side of the Erg (which is still the case) and to reserve a large part of the Erg for sand baths and camel excursions to the bivouacs, confining motorised vehicles to the south of the Erg (which has never been respected). This approach has been taken up by a Merzouga sustainable development pilot project, which resulted from an agreement between the Ministry of Tourism, the UNDP and the POT (Tafilalt Oasis sustainable territorial development programme) agency32. Stricter zoning appears to be the priority response given, based on the principle of sustainable tourism, albeit it seems to be difficult to implement.

• 33 In Algeria, the Wilaya de Biskra local authorities have banned the practice owing to a number of fa (...)
• 34 There are no statistics nor any monitoring or management (there is no hospital in Merzouga or speci (...)
• 35 In recent years, owing to an increase in the number of accidents and deaths, there has been an awar (...)

26Finally, regardless of the fact that sand baths have been practised openly and on a large-scale, the state as well as the local and medical authorities (unlike those in other countries33) seem to have been uninterested in them, at least until recently34. Due to their growing popularity, that is now changing. The sand baths have received a mention in the Moroccan and even international media (2M, AFP, Al Jazeera, etc.). Official brochures are starting to highlight the merits of sand in support of the rise of health tourism in these regions. Based on the European model of thalassotherapy, some vague notions to medicalise35 and ‘modernise’ the practice have been emerging at local level (with a massage salon, a healthy menu, a hammam, a jacuzzi, etc.), although, for the moment, these have not come to fruition due to a lack of investment, foreign partners and official support.

• 36 The first three were Quebec City in Canada, Aguas Calientes in Peru and Bath in England.

27Finally, it would seem that, in the medium term, there could be a convergence of the two forms of psammotourism because the two types of clientele are becoming increasingly less compartmentalised. While more Moroccans are now coming on holiday to Merzouga in their family or friendship groups to both try out the sand bath experience and see the dunes in excursions to the bivouacs, some Europeans are also trying out the sand baths, as illustrated by the diversification of the discourse on the benefits of sand. The fact that sand eliminates toxins and stoutness, providing a natural ‘detox’ treatment, has already been added to the discourse. Now something of a growing trend, the sand baths in Merzouga have risen to number 4 in the world rankings as the best destination for wellness tourism, according to the August/September 2016 edition of the American magazine National Geographic Traveler36. Hence, we might well wonder whether the sand baths are not being banalised at all as they align themselves with the international standards of health and wellness tourism, namely professionalisation, medicalisation, marketing and recreation.

• 37 The emblematic fauna of the ergs (fennec, jerboa, gazelle, etc.) are already thought to have disapp (...)

29This anchoring is based, in the first place, on the specific features of the location insofar as they are linked to the intrinsic qualities of the sand (texture, composition, aesthetic qualities). These give rise to functional qualities and, in particular, to therapeutic uses that generate new practices and activities. Controlled by the local populations, they are then linked to other resources (Saharan nomadic identity, desert vegetation, camel’s milk, etc.) in order to integrate them into notions of wellbeing and individual regeneration. As a touristic resource, the desert, or more precisely the dune sands, is renewed in line with the evolution of the touristic practices that take it as a medium and exploit its specific qualities. There is no question that it is a renewable touristic resource, but it is important to add that it is not necessarily a sustainable one, because it is determined by the maintenance of the ecological conditions of resource reproduction, particularly in a context where the tourist facilities are being standardised and upgraded. This therefore raises the increasingly acute issues not only of biodiversity conservation, increased water consumption and waste management37 but also, more broadly, of landscape protection and the support of oasis agropastoralism in the face of desertification and urbanisation.