The Bedouin are a tribal Arabian ethnic group. They inhabit much of the Middle East. With the onset of the Greening of the Deserts, begun in the 1970s in northern Africa and spreading to Arabia and filling out the Fertile Crescent by the 1990s, many Bedouin have found themselves in an utterly changed environment. This has led to significant lifestyle changes for many. In an era of plentiful resources, many Bedouin tend to travel in larger groups of common patriarchy or linked by marriage - goums. While some continue to herd, many Bedouin now perform roles as policemen and pioneers of the greened deserts. A Bedouin population explosion has occurred in the Maghreb, and while many there are now settled their identity remains strong. Educated in their new towns, many Bedouin go on to work as e