A. Scope of the study 5 B. Background 6 C. Desert shru b rangelands 7 1. Definition 7 2. World distribution of desert shrub vegetation 8 3. Resource value of desert shrubs 12 D. Iraq, a brief introduction to the country 14 1. Environment 14 2. Population 17 3. Land use 18 4. Vegetation 19 I. INTRODUCTION I. A. Scope of the study The degradation of renewable natural resources in the arid areas of South West Asia has become a matter of great concern. Locally the effects of careless utili- zation of the land and its resources had been felt long ago. It is, however, only relatively recently that...