Gustave (Gus) Gintzburger completed his PhD on pasture modelling in 1975 (Université Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France). He worked on Mediterranean rangelands as a botanist-ecologist on the Algerian steppe (1970–71), with an FAO Range Project in Libya (1975–80), with the Western Australian Department of Agriculture (1980–85) where he patented a ‘pitting’- reseeding machine to rehabilitate degraded rangeland. He worked next with INRA (Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique – France) on Mediterraneanpastures while running the Scientific Secretariat of the IVth International Rangeland Congress (1991, Montpellier). He later joined ICARDA (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, Syria) as programme leader ‘Pasture, Forage and Livestock Program’ (1992–99). In 1995, he launched a rangeland programme with the coauthors of this book and other Turkmen, Uzbek and Kazakh colleagues in collaboration with the US Global Livestock CRSP – CO2 rangeland flux measurements. The present book was then launched, which Gus enriched with his field experience and wide botanical and ecological knowledge of the rangelands of the Maghreb, Mashreq, Near and Middle East, Middle and Central Asia and Australia. Gus Gintzburger, currently a Research Director with INRA, is positioned with the CIRAD–EMVT/Econap (Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement – Animal Production and Veterinary Medicine/ Rangeland and Wild Life Management Programme, France). He is specializing in rangeland survey, rehabilitation and plant genetic resources in Mediterranean zones, Near East, Middle and Central Asia.