Address by Mr. Lahoucine Tijani,

Deputy Chair of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection

at the Lalla Hasnaa Awards Ceremony for the 2011 Clean Beaches Program

Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa

Ladies and Gentlemen

To begin, on behalf of Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa, President of the Mohammed VI Foundation for Environmental Protection, welcome to the Lalla Hasnaa Awards Ceremony for the 2011 Clean Beaches program.

This event, which has become an annual event, allows us to reflect on the Clean Beaches program assessment and evaluate its results. It is also an opportunity to reinforce all efforts that focus on sustainable coastal development, as desired by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God glorify him.

Thus, by sharing with complete pride the compelling results that this program has been able to achieve, it should be noted that the exceptional success of this program’s activities is due to the effective involvement of all foundation partners, whether it be public, private or especially local authorities and communities and the relevant government administrations.

Ladies and Gentlemen

This program that Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa initiated in 1999, has attained significant milestones that have enabled it to achieve the objectives and the strategy defined by Her Royal Highness Princess Lalla Hasnaa. This program began with the management of the Kingdom’s most visited beaches, to become a program encompassing the majority of them through campaigns to equip certain beaches with cleaning machines and equipment. Today it has developed into a program that teaches the fundamentals of sustainable coastal development in the Kingdom, in collaboration with all stakeholders.

Since its launch, this program has experienced several historic milestones including our membership in 2002 to the Foundation for Environmental Education, and in 2005 the implementation of the International Blue Flag label making Morocco the first Arab country and the second in Africa.

The naming of HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa as Ambassador for the Coast by the United Nations Environment Programme is a recognition of the relevance of HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa’s strategy to improve the environmental quality of the Kingdom’s beaches as part of a global vision of sustainable coastal development, which has enhanced the program’s regional and international prestige.

Ladies and Gentlemen

Today the Foundation has entered a new phase in this ambitious program. A phase that takes into consideration the recommendations from the International Coastal Conference that HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa chaired in October 2010 in Tangier, which marked a new direction in Foundation activities for the coast.

The Foundation’s wish to ensure continuity in these constructive initiatives, the hard work to improve our beach quality in accordance with international standards, and as per the will of HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa to evolve this program towards a level of integrated coastal zone management, have led the Foundation to undertake a national study in order to develop an action plan for the progressive and continuous development of this program, and define future directions of the Lalla Hasnaa Awards open to all program stakeholders.

Ladies and Gentlemen

In conclusion, on behalf of HRH Princess Lalla Hasnaa, please accept our sincere thanks to all stakeholders and partners: central government, local authorities and municipalities, public and private companies, civil society and the media, and all those who contributed in one way or another towards this program’s success.