Biomorphology in a sandstone environment, Western Burkina Faso

The mission of this document is to describe an increasingly threatened vegetation environment. Vegetation on a global scale is experiencing a strong regression due to human activities, notably agriculture, livestock and especially wood energy. In Burkina Faso, natural vegetation is increasingly losing this character due to older and more sustained anthropization (FONTES J. and GUINKO S., 1995). Agriculture is the most important human activity with significant consequences on soil and vegetation cover degradation. Indeed, it is becoming more and more intensive and the progressive shortening of the fallow period, which began in the 1970s and which accompanies this intensification, is not a sign of progress for the farmer, but rather a necessity due to the lack of land, either because the population has increased or because it has been confined to a limited space (ALEXANDRE D.-Y. and KAÏRE M., 2001). This fallowing tends to disappear nowadays, thus compromising the regeneration of vegetation in the fields. Livestock farming is also becoming intensive and nomads are becoming sedentary.