Talassemtane

Talassemtane National Park was created in October 2004 in the western Moroccan Rif, in the province of Chefchaouen, and protects some 589.5 km². Its explicit purpose was to conserve Morocco's last threatened fir forests.

The Moroccan fir (Abies marocana) is endemic to the Rif and the only fir species that grows in Africa. Its stands, on the high ground and the dampest shaded slopes of the massif, are relicts of forests that covered the region in colder periods and have been reduced to a few patches. Alongside them grow cedar woods, Spanish fir stands, gall oak woodland and a Mediterranean mountain scrub with a flora rich in Rifian endemics.

The relief is limestone and very abrupt, with gorges, caves and formations such as God's Bridge, a natural arch over the Farda River. The park forms part of the Intercontinental Biosphere Reserve of the Mediterranean, recognised by UNESCO on 25 October 2006: the first biosphere reserve to join two countries separated by a sea, with 894,134.75 hectares divided between northern Morocco and Andalusia. Its fauna includes the Barbary macaque, the only wild primate north of the Sahara, and a notable cliff-nesting birdlife.