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Land - in rangeland - is used in the holistic way (FAO, 1976; Zonneveld, 1972) and therefore includes vegetation, soil, rock and water. This paper will deal with vegetation mainly, since vegetation is by definition the most important land component in rangeland. Land evaluation in general and rangeland evaluation especially will be dealt with the paper of Zonneveld. There i t  will become clear that  ‘land quality’ and ‘LUT’ (Land Utilization Type) are key concepts for land evaluation. The most important land quality for rangeland evaluation is without doubt  the forage availability and the quest of this paper is to see which vegetation features influence the forage availability. The  review of rangelands in a world-wide perspective seems useful, before starting to discuss the rangeland evaluation techniques. Each major rangeland type shows his own specific rangeland qualities and (improved) rangeland utilisation types. The  need for an exploratory map of the world, continents and / or countries is also felt both in development projects and education. Such an exploratory rangeland'(sic) map should be able to answer a question like: ‘To which extent is grazing research in place A relevant and applicable to  my project in place B?’.