Geography A2 Synoptic revision cards

Social:

• Highest HDI in Africa
• Unemployment highest in Maghreb
• 2002; on track to meet all eight MDGs
• Authoritarian regime
• Conservative attitude towards women
• Rocky relations with Algeria after civil war

Water:

• Rainfall only between 200 and 600mm a year
• Reliance on fossilised groundwater
• Spatial imbalnce
• The Great Man Made River Project; provides water security however not sustainable
• Fears that NATO bombing could destroy the pipelines.
• 62% of population employed in industry- reliant on water supplies

Economic:

• 7th Highest GDP
• Highest GDP out of all Meghrab countries; $14,000PPP
• Value added from industry (e.g. China) 
• Libya; vast oil reserves; as global demand increases and the availability becomes sparser Libya may be able to raise prices. However, reliant on foreign investment to keep industry alive 
• Recent conflict jeapoardised trade with foreign countries 

 Global groupings:

• CSS (free trade area) and AMU (currently inactive and frozen)

Tourism (currently contributes <1% of GDP)

• Cultural tourism biggest draw

Social:

• Military coup 2008 and 2005
• 20% of people live on less than $1.25 a day
• Came 135th out of 139th for brain drain
• Mainly primary industry
• In first stage (of 3) in development; factor driven
• Signed an agreement with World Bank- IMF mission on a $54 million enhanced structural adjustment facility (ESAF)  see figure 4

Environmental:

• Rich in iron ore; 50% of exports. Harms the env. when being dug up
• Over explotiation of marine ecosystem
• Environmental degradation; desertification
• Has 12 ecoregions
• Aird climate; desertified making infrastructure development hard

Tourism:

•  Little tourism due to terroism
• 2007: 5 tourists killed
• 2009: terroist attack
• Foreign and Commonwealth Office: advise against all non essential travel to Mauritania

Economy:

• GDP: $2100 PPP; 36th out of 52 countries. Lowest out of Maghreb
• Mainly primary industry; little profit
• High external debt links to low HDI
• Strategies such as HIPC

Social:

• Low GDP
• Low literacy rate
• High brain drain
• High % in tourism
• Disparity in wealth
• Arab Spring; protests smaller more subdued than other countries
• One of the most politically stable countries in North Africa
• Pollution of water supplies

Terroism:

• 28th April 2011; bomb attack in Marrakesh: 17 killed
• May 2003; bomb attack: 45 killed

Political:

• Barcelona Conference; Euro-Mediterranean Partnership; Morocco already foremost beneficary. Aid will increase; 2011-13. Agreements on Free trade. Open Skies Agreement
• Cities without shantytowns
• 75% of exports go to EU
• 2002; OPEC fund for International Development loaned Morocco $15 million to help finance water supply project.
• Democratic; stable trading partner

Economic:

• Proposing high speed rail like from Marrakesh to Tanier via Agadir.

Terroism:

• 2nd largest foreign exchanger earner after phosphate industry
• Low cost airlines; switched on/off
• Plan Azur: 11% rise in tourism in the first five month of 2008
• Cultural tourism
• Vision 2010; 2000 (4.5 mill tourists) 2010 (10 mill)
• Allow for creation of 2,250 jobs
• 16.2% GDP

Environment:

• Araar and Argan trees valubale; helpted to promote rural economic growth
• Souss-Massa; only national park
•  Northern Saharan steppe

History:

• Algerian Civil War and Algerian War (see fig 7) shows a drop of -15% in 94 and -7% in 96/7

Terroism:

• high rate of kidnappings in 2011
• 11th Dec 07 Two bombs in central Algiers

Economy:

• 4th highest GDP in Africa
• 3rd in HDI in region
• Growth rate of 3%

Water scarcity:

• Overuse of underground aquifers; being exploited to 90% of capacity
• Hamma Water Desalinisation; provide water to Algeria
• Semi Arid climate
• No rivers
• Estimated by 2020; only have 25l of water avaliable per inhabitant per day; will be ranked among 6 poorest countries in water resources in the world.

Tourism:

• 1% of Algeria's GDP
• Goal to attract 3 million tourists by 2013
• Low levels of tourism due to poor investment in hotels and threat of terroism

Arab Spring & politics:

• Hasn't spread due to relationsip between capital and provinces
• Political vaccuum; no political parties that can debate and offer a new sense of vision
• Morocco and Algeria dispute over Western Sahara

Industry:

• High percentage involved in industry
• Likely to be due to an abundance of resources; crude oil and natural gas; heavy reliance upon

The Algerian government have taken advantage of recent high growth rates and subsidised micro credit programmes to support private initiatives in backwards regions

Social:

• Compulsory free education
• Womens rights most advanced in arab world
• poor human rights

Water scarcity:

• Using all potential water
• Using full capacity of groundwater; 2.1 billion m (3)
• well developed; 26 big, 880 smaller dams

Economy:

• $7,900
• Growth rate 3.4%
• Unemployment rate 14%

Terroism:

• Ghriba Security bombing 2002; 21 killed

Tourism:

• Ecotourism, spa and medical tourism emerging
• Now the blue ribbon of African toursim
• Tunisia tourism struggling after recent politicla riots; many tourists come from Libya; with continuing conflict, decreased tourists
• Use of e-commerce to increase tourism

Global groupings:

• AMU, CSS, GAFTA, WTO member
• Democratic; stable trading partner

Env. problems:

• Toxic & hazardous waste
• Water pollution
• Limited natural freshwater
• Deforestation
• Overgrazing
• Soil erosion
• Desertification

EU & Tunisia + Tunisia and other African countries:

• EU is Tunisia's first trading partner
• FDI in Tunisia €20.8 billion; largest foreign investor in country
• European Neighbourhood Policy; 2005
• Agadir Agreement; Morocco, Egypt + Jordan; reducing tarrifs

Arab Spring:

• 23 killed
• curfew
• Many young people fled to Europe, brain drain
• X for economy; EU chose to distance themselves from foreign investment
• X impact on tourism in the immediate days; after the uprising saw a loss of 80% of bookings
• 2300 refugees

Climate:

• Figure 9: ideal temperature range.