The kinetics of hydrogenation of (-)-a-pinene in the liquid phase using electrolessly-deposited Ni-Ply-AlzOa as catalyst was studied. The results showed that the products were extremely selective with respect to the formation of cis-pinane. A reaction mechanism with dissociative adsorption of both hydrogen and a-pinene was proposed. It was found that the hydrogenation of a-pinene was characterized by cis-addition. On the surface of the catalyst, two distinct types of active sites resulting from the presence of phosphorus were introduced. The apparent activation energy of hydrogenation of (-)-a-pinene in the temperature range 110-150 "C was 68.0 kJ/mol of pinene. The reaction orders were 1.24 and 1.14 for pinene and hydrogen, respectively. The experimental results correlated well with the theoretical analysis.