The invention relates to a preparation method of a catalyst for alpha-pinene hydrogenation, and belongs to the field of chemical engineering. The method comprises the processing steps that aluminum hydroxide, orthophosphoric acid, diisopropylamine, H2O and Al2O3 are mixed and stirred and then put in a stainless steel reaction kettle, crystallization is conducted in a drying oven with the temperature of 180-210 DEG C for 18-120 hours, filtration, washing and drying are conducted, and a well-crystallized molecular sieve APO-11 is obtained after calcinations is conducted for 1-10 hours at the temperature of 550 DEG C, wherein the molar ratio of aluminum hydroxide to orthophosphoric acid to diisopropylamine is 1:1:(1-3), and the molar ratio of H2O to Al2O3 is 20:1; the prepared APO-11 is mixed with NiCl2.6H2O according to the mass ratio of 1:(1-3), pH is regulated to 7-9, then NaH2PO2-H2O is added for reduction, and Ni-P/APO-11 is prepared after the reaction is conducted for 1-12 hours, wherein the molar ratio of Ni to P is 1:(2-6); the prepared Ni-P/APO-11 is added to a high-pressure reaction kettle, the high-pressure reaction kettle is sealed, N2 replacement and H2 replacement are conducted respectively, then hydrogen pressure is raised to 2-5 Mpa, pressure maintaining and leakage detecting are conducted, the reaction is conducted for 45-180 minutes at the temperature of 120-140 DEG C, and high-selectivity pinane is obtained, wherein the mass of the Ni-P/APO-11 accounts for 3-7% of the mass of turpentine oil. According to the method, the cost of the raw materials is low, the crystallization conditions are mild, energy consumption is low, and when the prepared material is used in an alpha-pinene hydrogenation reaction, high-selectivity cis-pinane can be obtained.