Presented during the 17h Annual Sahelo-Saharan Interest Group Meeting organized by the NGO Sahara Conservation Fund in Senegal, from 4 to 6 May 2017. The Sahara Conservation Fund (SCF) gathers every year about a hundred people who are interested in the field of Sahelo-Saharan species conservation.

1. 17th Annual Sahelo-Saharan Interest Group Meeting
2 days of talks on biodiversity conservation in the Sahara and in the Sahel
A diachronic study on the evolution of the main ecosystems Tassili / Ahaggar
cultural parks
Abdenour MOUSSOUNI, Chargé de planification – Projet Parcs Culturels Algériens (PPCA)
May 4 – 6, 2017

2. ‫اﻟدﯾﻣﻘراطﯾﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﺟزاﺋرﯾﺔ‬ ‫اﻟﺟﻣﮭورﯾﺔ‬
‫اﻟﺷﻌﺑﯾﺔ‬
REPUBLIQUE ALGERIENNE DEMOCRATIQUE ET POPULAIRE
Project "Conservation of biodiversity of world interest and sustainable use of ecosystem
services in cultural parks in Algeria"
Présenté par Mr Abdenour MOUSSOUNI, chargé de la planification (UCG).
17ème Conférence GISS- 4-6 Mai-Saint Louis, Sénégal.
A diachronic study on the evolution of the main ecosystems
Tassili / Ahaggar cultural parks,

3. Aim of the project: Ensure the
conservation of biodiversity and
sustainable exploitation of the different
ecosystems services in cultural parks.

4. Background and objective
Tassili n’Ajjer/ Ahaggar
cultural parks

5. Territoire immense
Large area
Tassili Cultural Park : 138.000 km²
Ahaggar Cultural Park : 633.887km²

6. Saharan climatic conditions would exclude all life if they are
homogeneous over the entire surface of the desert. The presence of
many microclimates is the key of its rich biodiversity. These
microclimates offer a favorable and unique habitat for organisms,
animals and plants.
Important climatic
variation in time and space

7. Dry environment
Fragile ecosystems
The Sahara receives an extremely
low amount of rain

8. Low population density
Rich living Algerian
cultural heritage
The cultural heritage in the Algerian Sahara may be viewed as one of the ultimate human
adaptation to global warming.

9. Rich Biodiversity Habitat for world
importance species
Important area for bird’s
conservation
The rich biodiversity of the Tassili and Ahaggar cultural parks with their diverse ecosystems services are
facing multiple pressures.

10. Contraints
Habitat regression
Decrease of
vegetation cover
Forcing of dray
climate and pasture
Overexploitation of
plants
Solutions
Poaching
Building a
biodiversity
monitoring system
based on network of
mobile units for
management and
supervision.
Results
The project has
contributed to the
preservation of the
prioritized areas.
1

11. Incomplete ecosystems
inventories
Incomplete data analysis
Monitoring large area is
complex
Reduced efficiency for
planning, decision-making.
2
Use of satellite remote
sensing data to
understand the evolution
of the different
ecosystems in the Tassili
Ahaggar cultural parks.
Use change detection
technique based on
remote sensing satellite
images to map the
evolution of main
ecosystems and identify
the most important
pressure on productive
ecosystem services. The
ongoing study uses 1984
and 2016 as reference
years.
Observation Solution

12. Methodology
Bibliography USGS Landsat database
Image selection
Preprocessing
Test and evaluation of different
mapping change detection
techniques
Maps verificationField work
No
Yes
Maps production
Evaluation

13. Step 1: preprocessing
Preliminary results
Spectral enhancement of vegetation
Example showing the performance of the applied approach in the case of a narrow vegetation
located in a canyon.

14. Step 2: land cover classes delimitation Determine the different classes of land use
Example of a steppe ecosystem in near the city of Djanet (Tassili park)
• The method of thematic classes’ identification is based on an hybrid
segmentation/classification approach.
• The process is able to delineate the steppe ecosystem accurately.

15. Analysis of preliminary
maps
Evolution of vegetation between 1986 and 2016
Case of the Abalessa region

16. Evolution of vegetation between 1986 and 2016
Case of the town of Tamanrasset

17. 1986 2016
Evolution of vegetation between 1986 and 2016
Case of the region of Idelès

18. 1986
2016
The green color shows vegetation growth between 1986 and 2016
Evolution of vegetation between 1986 and 2016
Case of the region of Idelès

19. Conclusion
The preliminary results show that there was an increase of the vegetation between
1986 and 2016.
There is a limited impact of the use of productive ecosystem services due to the
large area of the two parks.
This is also due to the good practice and the know-how of the Algerian population
living in these areas.
The habitats of the great fauna seem well preserved,
Further research need to be under taken to explore the link between these results
with global warming.

20. Results of this study
Bibliographic data
Base for the identification
of sites for the installation
of camera traps (50) for
cheetah monitoring.
Results of anthropological
investigations