Abstract
Data are presented indicating a seasonal mosaic pattern of burning in the savanna of southern Mali. A seasonal mosaic is a landscape that is annually re-created by people, and which contains patches of unburned, early burned, and recently burned vegetation. A survey of over 100 farmers and in-depth interviews demonstrates that rural inhabitants of southern Mali begin an annual burning regime early in the dry season in order to fragment the landscape, with the goal of preventing later fires that can damage natural resources. The process of gradually burning off the driest vegetation creates a seasonal mosaic of habitat patches that increases the potential of the landscape for a variety of dry season land uses, including hunting, gathering of savanna products, and grazing. An analysis of a series of Landsat images shows that the practice of mosaic burning is widespread in the wooded savanna, in which burning usually begins early and large fires are rare. On the basis of recent developments in ecological theory and empirical evidence from similar burning regimes in parts of Australia, it is suggested that seasonal mosaic burning in Mali not only prevents damaging late-season fires but increases biodiversity. It is concluded that discourse on African savanna burning overemphasizes the ecologically detrimental aspects of fire, while neglecting the beneficial ones resulting in misguided policies that pose a threat to human livelihoods and savanna ecosystems.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Barbosa, P. M., Grégoire, J. M., and Pereira, J. M. C. (1999). An algorithm for extracting burned areas from time series of AVHRR GAC data applied at continental scale. Remote Sensing and Environment 69: 253–263.
Bartlett, H. H. (1955). Fire in relation to primitive agriculture and grazing in the tropics: Annotated biobliography, University of Michigan Department of Botany, Ann Arbor.
Benjaminsen, T. A. (2000). Conservation in the Sahel: Policies and people in Mali, 1900–1998.
In Broch-Due, V., and Schroeder, R. (eds.), Producing Nature and Poverty in Africa, Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, Stockholm, pp. 94–108.
Bird, M. I., and Cali, J. A. (1998). A million year record of fire in sub-Saharan Africa. Nature 394: 767–769.
Biswell, H. (1989). Prescribed Burning in California Wildlands Vegetation Management, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Boyd, R. (ed.) (1999a). Indians Fire and the Land in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon State University Press, Corvaillis.
Boyd, R. (1999b). Strategies of Indian burning in the Willamete Valley. In Boyd, R. (ed.), Indians Fire and the Land in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon State University Press, Corvaillis, pp. 94–138.
Braithwaite, R. W. (1996). Biodiversity and fire in the Savanna Landscape. In Solbrig, O. T., Medina, E., and Silva, J. (eds.), Biodiversity and Savanna Ecosystem Processes, Springer, Berlin, pp. 121–140.
Brinkerhoff, D. W. (1995). African state–society linkages in transition: The case of forestry policy in Mali. Canadian Journal of Development Studies 16(2): 201–228.
Brookman-Amissah, J., Hall, J.B., Swaine, M.D., and Attakorah, J.Y. (1980). Are-assessment of a fire protection experiment in north-eastern Ghana savanna. Journal of Applied Ecology 17: 85–99.
Bucini, G., and Lambin, E. (2002). Fire impacts on vegetation in Central Africa: A remote sensing-based statistical analysis. Applied Geography 22(1): 27–48.
Cahoon, D. R., Stocks, B. J., Levine, J. S., Cofer, W. R., and O'Neill, K. P. (1992). Seasonal distribution of African savanna fires. Nature 359(29): 812–815.
Cole, M. M. (1986). The Savannas, Academic Press, New York.
Delmas, R. A., Loudjani, P., Podaire, A., and Menaut, J.-C. (1991). Biomass burning in Africa: An assessment of annually burned biomass. In Levine, J. S. (ed.), Global Biomass Burning: Atmospheric, Climatic, and Biospheric Implications, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Deshler, W. (1974). An examination of the extent of fire in grasslands and savanna of Africa along the southern side of the Sahara. In proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of the Environment, ERIM, Ann Arbor, MI.
Devineau, J.-L. (1997). Evolution Saisonnière et taux d'Accroissement des Surfaces Terri éres des Ligneux dans Quelques Peuplements Savanicoles Soundaniens del'Ouest Burkinabé. Ecologie 28(3): 217–232.
Doumbia, Y. (1991). Problematic des Feux de Brousse au Mali, Debat Nationale sur les feux de brousse, Unpublished report, Direction Nationale des Eaux et Fôret, Bamako.
Dwyer, E., Pinnock, S., and Gregoire, J.-M. (2000). Global spatial and temporal distribution of vegetation fire as determined from satellite observations. International Journal of Remote Sensing 21(6): 1289–1302.
Eva, H., and Lambin, E. (2000). Fires and land-cover change in the tropics: A remote-sensing analysis at the landscape scale. Journal of Biogeography 27: 765–776.
Eva, H., and Lambin, E. F. (1998a). Remote sensing of biomass burning in tropical regions: Sampling issues and multisensor approach. Remote Sensing and Environment 64: 292–315.
Eva, H., and Lambin, E. F. (1998b). Burnt area mapping in Central Africa using ATSR data. International Journal of Remote Sensing 19: 473–3497.
Fairhead, J., and Leach, M. (1995). Reading forest history backwards: The interaction of policy and local land use in Guinea's forest savanna mosaic, 1893–1993. Environment and History 1: 55–91.
Haynes, C. D. (1991). Use and impact of fire. In Haynes, C. D., Ridpath, M. G., and Williams, M. A. J. (eds.), Monsoonal Australia: Landscape, Ecology and Man in the Northern Lowlands, Balkema, The Netherlands, pp. 61–71.
Hough, J. L. (1993). Why burn the bush? Social approaches to bush-fire management in West African national parks. Biological Conservation 65(1): 23–28.
Hulme, M. (2001). Climatic perspectives on Sahelian dessication: 1973–1998. Global Environmental Change 11: 19–29.
Keay, R. W. J. (1949). An example of Sudan zone vegetation in Nigeria. Journal of Ecology 37(2): 335–364.
Kellman, M., and Meave, J. (1997). Fire in Tropical Gallery Forests of Belize. Journal of Biogeography 24: 23–24.
Koechlin, J. (1997). Ecological Conditions and Degradation Factors in the Sahel. In Raynaut, C. (ed.), Societies and Nature in the Sahel, Routledge, London, pp. 12–36.
Komarek, E. V. (1967). Fire—and the Ecology of Man. Proceedings of the Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference 6: 143–170.
Konig, D., Diarra, T., and Sow, M. (1998). Innovation and Individuality in African Development. University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor.
Koutsias, N., and Karteris, M. (2000). Burned area mapping using logistic regression modeling of a single post-fire Landsat-5 Thematic Mapper image. International Journal of Remote Sensing 21(4): 673–687.
Langaas, S. (1992). Temporal and spatial distribution of savanna fires in Senegal and The Gambia, West Africa, 1989–1990, derived from multi-temporal AVHRR night images. International Journal of Wildland Fire 2(1): 21–36.
Lewis, H. T. (1982). Fire technology and resource management in Aboriginal North America and Australia. In Williams, N. M., and Hunn, E. S. (eds.), Resource Managers: North American and Australian Hunter–Gatherers, AAAS Selected Symposium No. 67, Westview Press, Boulder, CO, pp. 45–67.
Lewis, H. T. (1989). Ecological and technological knowledge of fire: Aborigines versus park rangers in Northern Australia. American Anthropologist 91: 940–961.
Lewis, H. T., and Ferguson, T. A. (1988). Yards, corridors, and mosaics: How to burn a boreal forest. Human Ecology 16: 57–77.
Louppe, D., Oattara, N., and Coulibaly, A. (1995). The effects of brush fires on vegetation: The Aubréville Fire Plots after 60 years. Commonwealth Forestry Review 74(4): 288–291.
Malingreau, J.-P., Laporte, N., and Gregoire, J.M. (1990). Exceptional fire events in the tropics: Southern Guinee, January 1987. International Journal Remote Sensing 11(12): 2121–2123.
Mbow, C., Nielson, T. T., and Rasmussen, K. (2000). Savanna fires in east-central Senegal: Distribution patterns, resource management and perceptions. Human Ecology 28(4): 561– 583.
Menault, J.-C. (1993). Effets des feux de savanne sur le stockage et l'emission du carbone et des elements-trace. Sécheresse 4: 251–263.
Menault, J.-C., Abbadie, L., Lavenu, F., Loudjani, P., and Podaire, A. (1991). Biomass burning in West African savannas. In Levine, J. S. (ed.), Global Biomass Burning, MIT Press, Cambridge, pp. 133–142.
Menault, J.-C., Lepage, M., and Abbadie, L. (1995). Savannas, woodlands, and dry forests in Africa. In Bullock, S. H., Mooney, H. A., and Medina, E. (eds.), Seasonally Dry Tropical Forests, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 64–92.
Minnich, R. A. (1983). Fire mosaics in southern California and northern Baja California. Science 21: 1287–1294.
Morgan, W. B., and Moss, R. P. (1965). Savanna and forest in Western Nigeria. Africa 35: 286–294.
Nasi, R., and Sabatier, M. (1988). Projet Inventaire des ressources Ligneuses au Mali, DNEF, Bamako.
Nielsen, T. T., and Rassmussen, K. (1997). The distribution in time and space of savanna fires in Burkina Faso as determined from NOAA AVHRR data. Geografisk Tidsskrift 97: 86–97.
Parr, C. L., and Brockett, B. H. (1999). Patch-mosaic burning: A new paradigm for savanna fire management in protected areas? Koedoe 42: 117–130.
Pereira, M. C., and Setzer, A. W. (1993). Spectral characteristics of fire scars in Landsat-5 TM images of Amazonia. International Journal of Remote Sensing 14: 2061–2078.
Press, A. J. (1988). Comparisons of the extent of fire in different land management systems in the top end of the Northern Territory. Proceedings of the Ecological Society of Australia 15: 167–175.
Pyne, S. J. (1982). Fire in America, University ofWashington Press, Seattle.
Pyne, S. J. (1990). Fire Conservancy: The origins of wildland fire protection in British India, America, and Australia. In Goldammer, J. G. (ed.), Fire in the Tropical Biota: Ecosystem Processes and Global Challenges, Springer, New York.
Pyne, S. J. (1997). Vestal Fire, University ofWashington Press, Seattle.
Pyne, S. J. (1999). Ghana with theWind. International Forest Fire News 21: 2–11.
Republic du Mali (1991a). Rapport de l'administration conference sur les feux de brousse, Unpublished report, Counsel de developpement du cercle de Koulikoro, Republique du Mali, Bamako.
Republic du Mali (1991b). Rapport de synthese des C.L.D. de Kati-Kangaba, Unpublished report, Counsels de developpement de cercles de Kati and Kangaba, Republique du Mali, Bamako.
Ribot, J. (1995). Local Forest Control in Mali: An Institutional Analysis of Participatory Policies, The World Bank, Geneva.
Ribot, J. (1996). Participation without representation. Cultural Survival Quarterly Fall: 40–44.
Robinson, J. M. (1991). Problems in global fire evaluation: Is remote sensing the solution? In Levine, J. S. (ed.), Global Biomass Burning, MIT Press, Cambridge.
Rose-Innes, R. (1971). Fire in West African vegetation. Proceedings of the Tall Timbers Fire Ecology Conference 11: 175–200.
Russell-Smith, J., Lucas, D., Gapindi, M., Gunbunka, B., Kapirigi, N., Namingum, G., Lucas, K., Giuliani, P., and Chaloupka, G. (1997a). Aboriginal resource utilization and fire management practice in western Arhem Land, monsoonal northernAustralia: Notes for prehistory, lessons for the future. Human Ecology 25(2): 159–195.
Russell-Smith, J., Ryan, P. G., and Durieu, R. (1997b). A Landsat MSS-derived fire history of Kakadu National Park, monsoonal northern Australia, 1980–94: Seasonal extent, frequency and patchiness. Journal of Applied Ecology 34: 748–766.
Schmitz, A. (1996). Contrôle et utilization du feu en zones arides et subhumides africaines. FAO, Rome.
Scholes, R. J., and Walker, B. H. (1993). An African Savanna: Synthesis of the Nylsyley Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Scholes, R. J., Kendell, J., and Justice, C. O. (1996). The quantity of biomass burned in southern africa. Journal of Geophysical Research 101: 23667–23676.
Steiber, J., and du Saussay, C. (1987). Probelmatique de la Police Forestiere au Mali. In Seminar National sur la Police Forestiere au Mali, Chap. 2, pp. 11–53.
Stott, P. (1991). Recent trends in the ecology and management of the world's savanna formations. Progress in Physical Geography 15(1): 18–28.
Swaine, M. D., Hawthorne, W. D., and Orgle, T. K. (1992). The effects of fire exclusion on savanna vegetation at Kpong, Ghana. Biotropica 24(2a): 166–172.
Traoré, M. (1980). Circular Bamako, le 24 November 1980, Unpublished Memo, Union Democratique du Peuple Malien, Bureau Executif Central, Republic du Mali.
Turner, M. G. (1989). Landscape ecology: The effect of pattern on process. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 20: 171–197.
Turner, M. G., and Bratton, S. P. (1987). Fire, Grazing, and the Landscape Heterogeneity of a Georgia Barrier Island. In Turner, M. G. (ed.), Landscape Heterogeneity and Disturbance, Springer, New York.
Walker, B. H. (ed.) (1987). Determinants of Tropical Savannas, IRL Press, Oxford.
White, P. S., and Pickett, S. T. A. (1985). Ecology of Natural Disturbance and Patch Dynamics, Academic Press, San Diego.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Laris, P. Burning the Seasonal Mosaic: Preventative Burning Strategies in the Wooded Savanna of Southern Mali. Human Ecology 30, 155–186 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015685529180
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015685529180