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Impact of fencing on the regeneration and floristic composition of arid Tunisian rangelands Volume 14, issue 3, JUILLET-AOÛT-SEPTEMBRE 2003

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Authors
Institut des régions arides, 4119 Médenine, Tunisie <ferchichi.aliira.rnrt.tn> Commissariat régional au développement agricole de Gabès, Rue Abulkacem Chebbi, Gabès, Tunisie

Fencing is a technique which was largely applied in the steppe and forest. In situations where degradation has not reached the threshold of irreversibility as yet, a more or less prolonged period of fencing can allow the spontaneous reconstitution of the ecosystem. However, the recovery speed of the vegetation varies widely according to the ecological situation. This paper constitutes an evaluation of fencing in various ecological situations of presaharian Tunisia based on a quantification of the rate of evolution of the vegetation cover, of the pastoral production and of the vegetation dynamics. This evaluation showed that fencing allows a rapid evolution of the floristic composition and vegetable cover of the sandy steppes ; a slow evolution in the mattoral, littoral steppes and halophiles steppes ; a significant development of the cover of perennial pastoral species in different ecological situations.