Rabat: A national interdepartmental simulation exercise, was held on Wednesday in the Dar Chaoui forest area (Tangier-Assilah Prefecture), as part of implementing the guidelines of the Master Plan for Integrated Forest Fire Management.

According to Agence Marocaine De Presse, significant human, logistical, and operational resources, both ground-based and aerial, were deployed by various institutional partners to take part in this exercise, as summer approaches. Notably, the Ministry of the Interior, the Royal Armed Forces, the Royal Gendarmerie, the Royal Air Force, Civil Protection, the Auxiliary Forces, and the ANEF were involved.

This full-scale exercise helped test, under conditions close to real-life situations, the efficiency of early warning systems and information-sharing mechanisms, as well as the responsiveness and interoperability of various stakeholders within a unified command structure based on current operational procedures.

It also provided a major opportunity to test out inter-agency coord
ination capabilities and decision-making optimization in a crisis context. Over 200 professionals from various agencies and services participated in this exercise, supported by an air fleet that included Canadair aircraft from the Royal Air Force as well as Turbo Thrush aircraft operated by the Royal Gendarmerie.

Beyond its operational dimension, FOREX’26 helped identify best practices, enshrine existing knowledge, and draw strategic lessons essential to the continuous improvement of the national system, the release notes. Lessons learned from this exercise will help further upgrade prevention, coordination, and response mechanisms, with a view to building greater resilience in the face of growing risks linked to climate change and increasing pressures on forest ecosystems.