Land-use in Central Tunisia over the last 2000 years. Preliminary results

Abstract

The background, aims and methods of a palaeoecological project dealing with the climate-, landscape- and vegetation development and the effects of historical and present land use in areas bordering on the Sahara are presented. The project involves the study-ing of playa sediments by pollenanalytical, chronostratigraphical and geomorpbological methods, to obtain information on the environmental changes connected to human im-pact and/or the variations in climatic conditions. Being bounded by the biggest desert area in tbe world, North Africa offers an excellent possibility to investigate the re-Iationship between environmental variations, man and ber culture. The research area is situating in tbe central part of Tunisia and belongs to tbe marginal zone of the northem Sahara where tbe desertformation and soil darnage are the greatest and most serious problems today resulting mostly from intensive human activity.