Country study Burkina Faso 
Biodiversity 

3.2.3.2 Richness in species of ecosystems

In general, the diversity of species in the Burkina Faso ecosystems is not well known. The presentation, in chapter 3.1, as well as the summary in table 14 illustrate this situation. Indeed, the various thematic reports developed for the present report underscored this weakness, and this is why the data has not been established for all the taxonomic groups.

3.2.3.3 Endangered species

Endangered species in Burkina Faso are determined through legislative texts specifying the condition of their protection. The list of extinguished, threatened and vulnerable species is not well stocked because of the recent character of the particular attention paid to the various constituent components of the country's global biodiversity. Table 21 below gives the list of such species.

Table 21: Situation of extinguished, dying, threatened and vulnerable species at the national level.

Category	Extinct	About extinction	Threatened	Vulnerable	Total
Mammals	Oryx		Panther Cheetah Elephant	Damaliscs Gazella Rufifron Gazella Dorcas Wild dog	8
Birds		Ostrich	Abyssian hornbill	West African crowned crane	3
Reptiles			Crocodile Python		2
Fishes				Protopterian (eel)	1
Ligneous flora		Celtis integrifolia Adenium obesum	Acacia senegal Dalbergia melanoxylon Pterocarpus lucens Vitex doniana Ximenia americana	Adansonia digitata Bombax costatum Ceiba pentandra Anogeissus leiocarpus Khaya senegalensis Prosopis africana Parkia biglobosa Butyrospermum paradoxum	15

Table 22: Endangered plant species in the north and centre-north of Burkina Faso.

Overexploited species now  scarse around urban centres	Scarce species about extinction	Vulnerable food species
Daniella oliveri	Acacia erythrocalix	Adansonia digitata
Diospyros mespiliformis	Annona senegalensis	Bombax costatum
Entada africana	Brachystelma simplex subsp. banforae	Butyrospermum paradoxum subsp. parkii
Fagara xanthoxyloides	Gossypium anomalium	Detarium microcarpum
Nauclea latifolia	Guibourtia copallifera	Lannea microcarpa
Rauvolfia vomitora	Hibiscus gourmassia	Sclerocarya birrea
Securidaca longepedunculata	Landolphia heudolotti	Spondias mombin
Trichilia roka (= T. emetica)		Saba senegalensis variété glabriflora
Vitex doniana		Parkia biglobosa
Ximenia americana		Tamarindus indica

Source: BÉLEM B., 1996, et BOGNOUNOU O., 1997.

3.2.3.4 Endemism

The situation of endemism is very little known in Burkina Faso. However, there is a timid knowledge concerning flora for which it has been established that, at least, 23 existing species in Burkina Faso are endemic in West Africa. Table 23 lists these species and their respective families.

Table 23: West African scarce/or endemic species

	Family	Genus and species
1	Mimosaceae	Acacia erythrocalyx
2	Scrophuliaceae	Craterostigma plantagium
3	Fabaceae	Aeschynomene mbacoundensis
4	Limnocharitaceae	Lagarosiphon muscoides
5	Malvaceae	Gossypium anomalum
6	Rubiaceae	Botopedima tenius *
7	Cyperaceae	Afrotrilepis pilosa
8	Cyperaceae	Bulboschoenus maritimus
9	Cyperaceae	Eleocharis decoriglumis
10	Cyperaceae	Schoenoplectus articulatus
11	Cyperaceae	Cyperus articulatus *
12	Fabaceae	Sesbania rostrata
13	Alismataceae	Sagittaria oblusifilium
14	Caryophyllaceae	Polycarpaea dillei
15	Poaceae	Eragrostris lingulata
16	Malvaceae	Hibiscus gourmania
17	Hamarylliaceae	Crinum mulicum
18	Oleaceae	Jasminum kerstingii (very localised)
19	Poaceae	Rytachne furtira
20	Poaceae	Elionurus euchaetus
21	Aslepiadaceae	Gongronema obscurum
22	Asclepiadaceae	Brachystelma simplex, subsp. anforae
23	Caesalpinaceae	Guibourtia copallifera**

According to LEBRUN, 1991 et OUEDRAOGO, 1994.
Key : *= present in the Sindou Peaks
         **= present in Tourny (Kankalaba)

3.2.3.5 Introduced Fauna and Flora species and varieties

The introduction of species in a country constitutes a means to mitigate a loss at the economic, sociocultural and scientific level. In Burkina Faso where the increase in production and the fight against the consequences of drought represent priorities, the recourse to exotic species is a common practice. The activity sub-sectors which introduce species and varieties are particularly agriculture and forestry. Thus, for example, of 320 species of domesticated ligneous flora, 201 are exotic (BELEM B., 1996). In addition, the livestock sub-sector has recourse to the introduction of varieties of animal species.
The main types of plants being introduced are ligneous plants, food crops, market garden crops, industrial crops, cash crops and decorative plants.
As far as domestic wildlife is concerned, the following breeds have been introduced:

• at the level of cattle the Azawak zebus and M'Bororo zebus (Niger), the Gouadalis (Nigeria), and the N'Dama Taurus (Côte d'Ivoire);
• at the level of sheep, the bali-bali breed (Macina);
• at the level of pigs, breeds such as the Korogho pig (Côte d'Ivoire);
• at the level of poultry, the Gallor guinea-fowl, Rode-Island Red hens, the Plymouth, the Nera (Europe).

3.2.3.6 Domestic animals and cultivated plants

Domestic animals and cultivated species rank high in the uses of the constituent components of biological diversity in Burkina Faso, because the country has an agro-pastoral vocation.

3.2.3.6.1 Domestic animals

Domestic fauna experienced more and more a phenomenon of crossbreeding, because of the search for bigger sizes and yield. The few traditional farmsteads of the country are more and more abandoned in favour of the raising of species that have bigger sizes.

3.2.3.6.2 Cultivated plants

Since the colonial period, concrete actions have been undertaken as part of the conservation of cultivated plants. They are:

• improvement of domesticated species through botanical research, provenance trials;
• use of at least 40 local species in plantation operations;
• multiplication and regeneration techniques;
• improvement of natural formations;
• research in further knowledge of the biology of species;
• seeds conservation.

As far as agricultural plants are concerned, the level of species conservation is mediocre because there is no (or almost none) important actions of in-situ conservation of resources. However, the protected forest domains contribute to the conservation of wild species. The fundamental reason behind this situation lies in the country's difficult socio-economic conditions, which oblige the local populations to seek to satisfy their immediate needs at the detriment of sustainable development. This results in the adoption of new species and varieties having yield and quality higher than those of local species. However, there are a few ex-situ conservation and conservatory installations of phytogenetic resources.
For cereals (sorghum, millet, maize, rice and fonio), local varieties (when they exist), wild forms have been prospected, sampled and preserved in international centres of genetic resources. The duplicates of some of these samples are preserved at the national level in Farakoba. Today, 237 samples of sorghum, 112 of millet, 41 of fonio and rice are preserved there. Oil seeds (groundnuts, sesame and soybean) are preserved in very small quantities in refrigerators and regenerated every two years. Oil seeds such as Cowpeas and Bambara groundnuts are preserved in cold-storage room.

3.2.3.7 Traditional conservation knowledge and practices

Traditional knowledge and practices have sometimes integrated the desired conservation methods of species, biotic communities and consequently genetic resources. These practices are more marked in Africa where there are between man and nature beliefs, messages, correspondences and knowledge. These practices are related to ethnic groups (of which there are more than 60 in Burkina Faso), clans and age group.

Traditional conservation practices of biological diversity in Burkina Faso, like in many African countries are:

• conservation village forestry relics, called "sacred woods", with cultural or religious goal, constituted of specific species such as Anogeissus leiocarpus (African birch), Combretum micranthum (Kinkéliba), etc., whose sites are chosen by traditional chiefs and elderly people (the wise);
• the establishment of agroforestry park systems for the preservation of soil fertility and the supply of forestry products to man; the most used species in this framework often have multiple uses; they are, for example, Acacia albida (whitish Acacia, Mimosa), Parkia biglobosa (Nere), Butyrospermum paradoxum (shea-tree) Sclerocarya birrea (Sclerocary, Plum-tree), Lannea microcarpa (Grapefruit tree ), Bombax costatum (red kapok tree), Diospyros mespiliformis (Ebony tree), Adansonia digitata (Baobab), and Acacia nilotica (Acacia from the Nile);
• the prohibition by religion or tradition from exploiting some animal species [ex: Canis familiaris (the dog), Equus asinus (the donkey) and Sus cristatus (the big) by the Muslim religion],
• useful species such as Tamarindus indica (Tamarind) and Stereospermum kunthianum by the Mossi and Bissa, Parkia biglobosa (Nere) used by some Bissa clans for fetishes in the domain of thunder;
• the traditional regulation of the exploitation of some animal or plant resources (e. g. : organisation of village hunting and fishing), gathering, cereal harvesting;
• customary practices with an indirect protection of species (customary bush fires).

Table 24 shows the non-exhaustive list of species being the object of traditional conservation according to the values ascribed to them.

Table 24: List of traditionally preserved species

Ascribed value	Species
Economic	Acacia albida, Adansonia digitata, Borassus aethiopum, Bombax costatum, Butyrospermum paradoxum,Diospiros mespiliformis, Lannea acida,Lannea microcarpa, Parkia biglobosa, Sclerocarya birrea, Tamarindus indica
Sacred (sacred woods)	Adansonia digitata, Albizia chevalieri, Anthiaris africana, Bligia sapida, Borassus aethiopum,Ceiba pentandra, Combretum micrantum, Cyrtosperma senegalens, Dioscorea dumetorum, Elaeis guineensis, Khaya senegalensis, Pachystela argentea, Pterocarpus erinaceus
Clanic (protection)	Clarias anguillaris, Crocodilus niloticus, Crocodilus cataphractus, Hippopotamus amphibius, Python sebae, Python regius,Tamarindus indica, Varanus niloticus, Varanus exhanthematicus, Gazella dama, Gazella dorcas, Gazella rufifrons, Epomopharus gambianus, Eidelon helvum, Orycterapus afer, Parkia biglobosa
Religious and/or ritual	Equus asinus, Canis familiaris, Sus cristanus
Socio-cultural	Adansonia digitata, Ficus sp., Tamarindus indica, Khaya senegalensis, Sclerocarya birreae
Handicraft and/or customary (masks)	Afzelia africana, Lannea microcarpa, Cassytha filiformis, Canarium schweinfurthii, Tamarindus indica, Adansonia digitata,Gardenia erubescens,Ficus sp., Khaya senegalensis

3.2.3.8 Land use

The available data on land use in Burkina Faso comes form the interpretation of aerial photographs of IGN- France missions taken during the period between 1950 and 1956. The resulting map (Map REMY G. ) reflects the various extents of intensity of land use during the period concerned. One notices a parallel between the data from this map and those from population densities published by SAVONNET in 1965.

The map of land use by RÉMY G. supplies the following data in table 25 for 1956 :

Table 25: Extent of land use

Extent of land use	Area ( km²)	%
Null    Insignificant    Less than 6%    From 6 to 25%    From 25 to 50%    More than 50%    Uncovered zone	39 800  49 000  86 990  74 900  19 000  2 000  900	14.6  18.0  31.9  27.0  7.0  0.7  0.3
TOTAL	272 500	100

Source: OUADBA J M., 1997

One can notice that only little more than the third of the territory can be considered as populated on average (use > 6-25%) or highly populated (use > 25%)", the level of settlement translating the extent of land use.

An attempt to evaluate the evolution of land use was made in 1991 by GUINKO S., BANDRÉ E. and OUADBA J. M., at the request of the cartographic project Atlas of Burkina, hosted by the ministry of planning. The information available now can be taken from the "Carte de la végétation et de l'occupation du sol au Burkina Faso" by FONTES J. et GUINKO S. (1995). Land use, synonymous with "agricultural domination ", is expressed in three (3) classes according to the percentage of farms and young fallows against the background of natural or spontaneous vegetation. The result of the data is presented in table 26.

Table 26: Area of land use according to class

Class	Area (km²)	%
Low (<10%)	136,329	50.33
Average (10-30%)	73,574	27.16
High (>30%)	60,938	22.50
TOTAL	270,841	99.99

Source :OUADBA J. M.., 1997

Map 12 below gives the extent of croplands use.

Map 12 extent of croplands use

It can be noticed here that half of the country belongs to the class of low land use (136.329 km²). Milieux with higher use account for about 20% of the national territory and correspond mainly to zones including big urban centres (Ouagadougou, Koupéla, Koudougou) where the majority of the country's population is concentrated.

These authors made it clear that a "rate of less than 10% equals low densities of population and long enough crop rotations-fallows to ensure a good regeneration of soils. On the other, more than 30% of use, the population density is very important and leads to a systematic shortening of the cycle of fallow, lower yields and impoverishes soils".

By analysing the results from FONTES J. et GUINKO S., it can be estimated that since 1956, and particularly in recent years, the intensity of land use has increased by 17% for all the country. However, this increase does not have the same meaning everywhere, because of the diversity of agricultural practices and the disparity in population densities.