Fires in Central African Republic captured on ninth January 2015 by Landsat 8 OLI satellite

In the Central African Republic there's a transition zone which vegetation that consists of secondary savannahs and woodlands with some open forest. These savannahs are believed to be fire-maintained. Some areas have suffered a decline in population and a regrowth of biomass has occurred.

The intensive use of fire is linked to agricultural practices, hunting and pastoralism. The decision to burn certain areas is decided at the village level and becomes a threat to the sustainability of natural resources.

The agricultural fires are small fires that occur across the country in December and January. Their function is to prepare the fields for agriculture. At the same time, farmers burn the area around their crops and villages earlier in the season to avoid accidental fires caused by the passage of pastoralists. The herdsmen light fires along the route both to stimulate regrowth and to facilitate passage. That creates a conflict between the two groups, pastoralists and villagers.

One a different level there's the large scale poaching, with its greatest impact in the north and north east of the country. The open savannahs of the Northeast, on the Sudan border, suffer large fire fronts of 50 km every year, moving southwest as the season progresses. The fires start on the frontier with Sudan in November and move southwest, arriving at Bakouma in February.

The Landsat 8 satellite, on it's pass across Central African Republic, captured on ninth January 2015 an area covered by many active fires and burn scars. The images have been processed on a false colour composite to distinguish the burn scars and active fires from the vegetation. Three images at different scales are presented showing an affected area ~ 20000 km2

References:

Fire Situation in Central African Republic. (n.d.). Retrieved January 11, 2015, from http://www.fao.org/docrep/006/ad653e/ad653e31.htm