Burkina Faso is one of the few countries in the world that sets fire to its own national parks. The practice is done to burn the older leaves on plants and trees and to burn the tall grasses. After the fires, most of the plants experience a fast growth of young new leaves, good food for grazing animals. In a farmer setting, this produces large amounts of feeding for cattle. However, in a national park, this practice seems of little use. It is done primarily for hunters' pleasure. The burning provides better views for the hunters and thus makes it easier to kill the animals. And as a hunter pays for every animal it kills, the operators of the parks have a good incentive to continue burning.
I visited the Singou and Pama reserves in the southeast of Burkina for a safari vision, but soon found myself in the wrong surroundings. I organised the tour from the campement de Singou, halfway on the road between Pama and Arly. At the start of the safari, the guides enthusiastically showed a number of photos of just-killed animals. The tour itself provided a big shock - apart from the direct surroundings of the Singou River, the entire reserves seem to be burnt. Everywhere you look, you will find blackened tree trunks; some trees recover, while others seem to have died. Parts of the reserves are slowly turning into man-created deserts. Animals are rare and are terrified by every sight or sound of men. The number of animals seen during the safari vision was therefore extremely low. Moreover, monkeys seem to be totally abundant and elephants are not likely to live permanently in the reserves. Elephants prefer dense bushlands or forests and certainly do not like Pama and Singou. If you want to do a safari vision, you’d better not visit this side of the country.
From journal Touristic Hot Spots in Burkina Faso