Environmental Amenities and Regional Economic Development - The Case of Todgha Oasis

Abstract

Historically, natural resources have provided location-specific advantages for communities at various stages of their development. Agriculture and rural communities are regarded as producers of commodities and environmental and social services. This paper aims at analyzing the role of environmental amenities in rural economic development. In a first part, we present a survey of existing literature on the link between amenities and rural development. In a second part, we give an example from the Oasis of Todgha (Southeastern Morocco), and we analyze how environmental amenities can contribute to the economic development of the region.