FAO Forestry country profiles - natural woody vegetation

Forest types

Forest cover map

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Map source: Global Forest Resources Assessment 2000, base map: ESRI

The above map is an extract from the Global Forest Cover map produced as part of FRA 2000. Please refer to FRA Working Paper 19 for a background to the production of the map.

The Republic of Tunisia can be divided into five bioclimatic zones, increasing in dryness from north to south, with soil cover showing a similar succession. Thus, the humid zone (annual rainfall of over 1 000 mm) has brown soils rich in organic matter and is home to cork and zeen oak; the subhumid zone (annual rainfall of 700-1 000 mm) has clayey soils (vertisols); the semi-arid zone (annual rainfall of 500-700 mm) has calcareous soils for the most part; the arid zone (annual rainfall of 300-500 mm) has saline soils (Kairouan), brown steppe soils and skeletal soils (regosols and lithosols); and the Saharan zone (annual rainfall of under 300 mm) has soil paved with calcareous slabs and gypseous crusts.

Tunisia has five main natural regions. The Tell, with a humid climate in the north, is the extension of two Atlas ranges; this region is made up of ranges and valleys, with a maximum altitude of 1 500 m. Southeast of these mountains, the central steppes form an intermediate platform of high hills and plateaux with a semi-arid climate. This region ends in the coastal region of the Sahel in the east of the country. Chotts, shallow salt lakes, lie between these steppes and the southern part of the country; these depressions lie at very low altitudes and stretch as far as the sea. South of the chotts, the country ends in the Sahara Desert.

The natural vegetation is closely linked to bioclimatic zone and soil type, varying in composition, structure, density and height from north to south. The thickest and floristically richest forests are found in the north (Kroumirie and Mogod), becoming more open and lower in the centre, while in the south they are rare, very fragile, and scattered.

The main species in natural forests, confined basically to the humid and subhumid zones, are cork oak (Quercus suber), zeen oak (Q. faginea) and maritime pine (Pinus pinaster) in the north, and Aleppo pine (P. halepensis) in the central region. However, there are other forest communities made up of secondary species: thuja (Tetraclinis articulata), holm oak (Quercus ilex), kermes oak (Q. coccifera), etc. All these species are found both in pure stands and also mixed with two or more other species. The edaphic and climatic requirements of the various species mean that broadleaved species and maritime pine are confined to the northern and Cap-Bon regions, while Aleppo pine is found mainly in the central and central western natural regions of the country.

Steppes predominate in the arid zone, especially alfa (Stipa tenacissima), sagebrush (Artemisia herba alba) and jujube (Ziziphus lotus) steppes. The subdesert zone contains bushy and herbaceous vegetation adapted to this very dry climate, while the desert region contains only very sparse non-woody vegetation.

Human interference also plays a major role and has considerably transformed the appearance of the vegetation, so that certain plant formations have replaced forests destroyed by clearing, fires and overgrazing maquis in the north, garrigue in the centre, and steppes in the centre and south of the country. Except for zeen oak forests, Tunisian oak forests suffer similar degradation, so that they are changed into shrubland with a certain number of trees (a few metres in height), then into low garrigue (a few metres in height), and finally into bush steppe.