Senegal : forest fires reduce soil fertility in an already dry land

It is the season for bush fires in Senegal, and there are once again concerns that vast tracts of fertile land could be set alight, and ravaged. The season extends from October to May, with most of the fires occurring in the south and south-east of the country. Over 2005 and 2006, more than 400,000 hectares were affected in the course of an unusually severe series of fires. People often start fires in an effort to clear land of bush for farming, enabling them to avoid the laborious task of clearing manually.

Loss of soil fertility means that farmers are consistently in search of new land. According to Papa Mawade Wade, a specialist in desertification, Senegal has experienced a 25 percent drop in soil fertility and loss of 80,000 hectares of forest cover annually since the great drought of the 1970s in West Africa.

Notes agronomist Mansour Fall, "since independence in 1960, the total surface area reserved for the agricultural sector remains unchanged. New farm land only replaces that which is lost because of the decrease in soil fertility". He states that only a fraction of the land in Senegal lends itself to farming. A systematic reduction in this area through bush fires would result in an agricultural deficit.

The fires often get out of control, fuelled by vegetation that has become dense during the rainy season. "Annual losses in forest area due to bush fires are estimated at 350,000 hectares of forests," notes documentation issued by Senegal's National Programme of Action to Fight Desertification, adopted in October 1998. The Ecological Tracking Centre (Centre de suivi écologique) has recommended that areas rich in vegetation be identified before the end of the rainy season, and that committees be set up and equipped to fight fires in parts most susceptible to outbreaks. In addition, people should be encouraged to put in place and maintain firebreaks at the end of September, in areas where this practice has been mastered.

Water, forestry and national park officials burn firebreaks along roads and railways, and in the vicinity of villages to prevent later blazes. But communities may fail to start firebreaks under the required conditions, again allowing fires to get out of control.

Authorities have already taken steps to raise awareness of fires in northern Senegal, where fewer are recorded. There are almost no fires in the far west, the site of large urban areas and agricultural regions less susceptible to outbreaks. The centre of the country, where peanuts are cultivated, is only slightly affected - again because of the lesser vulnerability of planted areas.


IPS