Cupressus dupreziana A. Camus : répartition, dépérissement et régénération au Tassili n’Ajjer, Sahara central

Abstract As soon as it was first discovered in 1924, on the heights of the Tassili n’Ajjer, Cupressus dupreziana (A. Camus) was declared an endangered species. The few ancient trees to be seen in the beds of wadis gave reason to suppose that they were isolated individuals left behind from a forest that had flourished in a damper climate. Attempts at a census of the trees were made on a number of occasions, the fullest, in 1972, reporting a total of 230 living specimens. The revision of this inventory between 1997 and 2001 has now enabled us to draw the boundaries of the present range of this species, to assess its rate of decline over the last three decades and, for the first time, to record some regeneration, with the presence of new, young trees.