Effects of Bush Fires on Biodiversity in West Africa Sahel: A Review

Abstract

Bush fire is one of the drivers of biodiversity loss worldwide. However, the impact of bush fires on biodiversity in the West Africa Sahel is not well documented. Therefore, this study reviewed the effects of bush fires on biodiversity, the typology of the bush fire drivers and bush fires solutions in the West Africa Sahel via a systematic review. The authors used many research engines such as Google Scholar and Mendeley from 2010 to 2022 with some keywords in French and English. It comes from the analysis of the data that Mali is the most country affected by bush fires with an average of 35,000,000 ha burned. In Burkina Faso, bush fires burned more than 2 million hectares each year. The analysis showed also a loss of 1,675,157 ha in Niger and 56,568.10 ha in Senegal. The study recommends that climate actions should target bush fires prevention and fighting as climate response in order to promote sustainable biodiversity managementin the West Africa Sahel. The study recommends also that West Africa Sahel countries develop bushfire community education programs for fire prevention.