NEW BOOK ON LIBYAN RANGELANDS

May 5, 2025

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A new book entitled “The Rangelands of Libya” by Gustave Gintzburger and Slim Saïdi has recently been published.

Authors Notes:

“Libya remains a land of mysteries with a harsh arid climate, a land rich in millenaries of troubled history, a land where the Sahara meet the Mediterranean Sea, a land where the West and the East Mediterranean merge. Libya is also a land where the desert and the sown intermingle in the steppe country where the rainfall is unpredictable, the soils are poor, rocky, saline, rendering rainfed cultivation hazardous, where grazing and opportunistic rainfed cropping remained for long the only viable agricultural options. Over the past 60 years, oil resources allowed gigantic agricultural development projects, urbanization, road network expansion and well drilling. This changed the ways of life of rural populations, impacting and undoubtedly altering rangelands conditions and systems, as well as native vegetation cover, wildlife and land use.

Our book reviews the past and current environmental and agricultural condition of the Libyan rangelands with example of how territories and resources are used by tribal communities. It describes, explains and illustrates the landscapes, the vegetation, the wildlife, the rainfed cereal systems and livestock systems, the reasons for the rampant overstocking, the relentless land clearing for hazardous cropping and uncertain irrigation projects, the wild fuelwood collection and charcoal manufacturing, all triggering land degradation and desertification. Long-tested rangeland recovery and rehabilitation techniques in Libya are reviewed using appropriate plant material and proven establishment techniques with successes and failures assessed.

In our book, we describe and illustrate 262 common Libyan arid rangeland plants (51 families) with their uses, their vernacular names, with references to neighbouring countries.

It features original information on the climate and droughts, geomorphology, soils, plant associations, traditional livestock systems and their evolutions, rainfed cropping, water use on rangelands, fauna, the History of Libyan rangelands and the evolution of their tribal, territorial and social uses, forests and coal mining, degradation – desertification and practical regeneration, techniques and plant material for rangeland rehabilitation, agro-ecological zoning for Barley and Olive, all abundantly illustrated with many examples of GIS -RS, with some 600 bibliographic references and a Libyan Arabic glossary of common terms, usual objects, customs, plants, wildlife, landscapes, etc., etc.: this book is the result of about ten years criss-crossing the Libyan rangelands followed by 8 years compiling data and writing!

This unique and comprehensive arid rangeland monography is offered in hopes of a better future for the Libyan people and the whole Mediterranean arid regions from Morocco to Pakistan.”

Further details about the book are available from the publisher CABI with a preview available here.

If you would like to review this book (for publishing in the Range Management Newsletter) please request an eBook copy from Ollie Mawby at CABI (o.mawby@cabi.org). The complete eBook can be viewed offline for 60 days but cannot be downloaded or shared.