Mali: Government imposes six-month ban on tree felling

The government of Mali has imposed a six-month ban on tree felling to try and slow the rate at which the country's savannah woodland is being steadily decimated for firewood and charcoal. However, housewives in the capital Bamako are grumbling that this has pushed up the price of cooking fuel. The Ministry of the Environment estimates that Mali is loosing 400,000 hectares of tree cover a year to meet the rising demand for construction timber and fuel wood.