Senegal: Setting fire to the future

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. Over 2005 and 2006 more than 400,000 hectares were affected in the course of an unusually severe series of fires. Almost a tenth of the southern Linguère region was burnt, and more than nine percent of the Bakel area. Several smaller outbreaks were also documented.