In response to the question “who do you think sets fires in your farming zone?” a total number of 152 informants indicated that herders, hunters, and farmers are the main actors who regularly burn the savanna.
Farmers set fire for several reasons. First they utilize fire to protect their mango and cashew orchards from accidental burnings from middle and late dry season fires. At the beginning of the dry season before grasses are very dry, they burn around their plantations to make firebreaks (Fig 3.1). Second, in the middle of the dry season, they clear the landscape to increase visibility in order to avoid dangerous animals such as snakes. Third, farmers use fire as part of their slash and burn agricultural system. They typically cut down trees during the early dry season (November- December) to clear new land to farm. They let these trees dry and then burn them in the late dry season (March- April). Farmers also burn crop residues of rice, maize, and cotton of already established field before planting in May. These fires can escape and burn the surrounding remaining unburned patches in the late dry season periods (Fig. 3.1).
Herders are the second main actor igniting the bush in the early dry season. During the surveys, a distinction was made between herd owners and herders (Fig. 3.2). Here owners are in general FulBe cattle owners who migrated from Mali and Burkina Faso to the terroir of Katiali. Salaried herders are composed of young FulBe and Senufo migrants from Mali and Burkina Faso, and some Senufo and Jula natives from Katiali.
Both herd owners (or their kin) and salaried herders herd cattle daily and engage in biomass burning during the dry season in the Katiali region.
Fig. 3.1. Biomass burning in the early dry season: A farmer is setting fire around his mango orchard early in the dry season in the evening on 12/9/2007
Fig. 3.2. A FulBe pastoralist is at home in the evening (A) and herders in the bush around fire after cooking their breakfast (B)
Fig. 3.3. Three dozo hunters and a hunter with a hoe and dog
B
A
Livestock raising is an important activity in the region. Some 60% of household family heads possess at least 1 head of cattle. The total number of animals owned by the 293 family chiefs was estimated at 3,900 heads. FulBe household heads living in settlements in the region also possess a large number of cattle.
Pastoralists choose their grazing zones according to the criteria of good grazing and water resources. They also prefer to move their herds in zones that are distant from farmlands to avoid causing crop damage. At the beginning of the dry season when grasses are dry enough to burn, herders set fire to the grass savanna to encourage grass regrowth. Regrowth produces more nourishing grasses to their animals. In addition, herders set fire to clear the grass savanna to destroy animal disease (such as tse-tse fly) habitats. Herders set also fire to clear the landscape to find a lost animal or to hide their tracks after causing a crop damage accident. Herders also brand their animals, treat their animals, and cook in the bush using fires that they don‟t often extinguish before leaving a place (Fig. 3.2: B). These non-extinguished fires generate accidental burnings in the middle of the dry season. In addition, herders burn some remaining unburned patches at the onset of the rainy season.
Hunters are those who are increasingly blamed for being main authors of intense middle dry season fires that clear the landscape during the middle and late dry seasons. The term hunter regroups two different groups of people involved in hunting in the Katiali region (Fig. 3.3). The first group is composed of “dozos” who are well-organized socio-professional group possessing mystic powers and some environmental knowledge of their localities. This group of hunters in general uses traditional guns (muskets) to hunt. Dozo hunters indicated that the middle dry season fires clear the landscape in such a way that it becomes difficult for them to hide from animals that often run away. The second group is composed of young men who use dogs, nets, and hoes to hunt. Hunters who use several tools to hunt are said to be the group mainly involved in setting fire in the middle of the dry season and in burning the unburned patches in the late dry season. They are typically involved in accidental burnings of the landscapes because they don‟t usually extinguish fires before leaving the place they ignited. In general, hunters choose their zones of activity according to the availability of animals and the knowledge of the
zones. They usually visit several savanna vegetation zones, bushes as well as forested areas, when hunting.
Other people whose resource use activities can lead to bush fires are honey collectors, charcoal makers, women who set fires around dead trees to collect firewood, children who herd oxen during the dry season, and reckless persons. If not extinguished before leaving the place, these fires can result in accidental bush fires, especially during the middle dry season when biomass is very dry and the wind speed is very high.
Biomass burning takes place all over the Katiali region (Fig. 3.4). However, forested zones such as Gobohloh, and farming zones where more tree plantations exist, experience less burning. Biomass burning activities increase in land allocated to immigrants by land priests, in which immigrant farmers cannot grow tree crops. Immigrant farmers are concentrated to the north of Katiali region in the Pkala zone. They are more dispersed to the east and south of Katiali.
Fig. 3.4. Biomass burning in the Katiali region based on Landsat satellite image. The black and dark spots represent burn scars, the white and blue spots are either fields or villages, and the red areas are wooded vegetations