Burkina Faso Environment - 2022

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

recent droughts and desertification severely affecting agricultural activities, population distribution, and the economy; overgrazing; soil degradation; deforestation (2019)

Environment - international agreements

party to: Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Life Conservation, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified: Nuclear Test Ban

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 36.78 micrograms per cubic meter (2016 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 3.42 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 12.85 megatons (2020 est.)

Climate

three climate zones including a hot tropical savanna with a short rainy season in the southern half, a tropical hot semi-arid steppe climate typical of the Sahel region in the northern half, and small area of hot desert in the very north of the country bordering the Sahara Desert

Land use

agricultural land: 44.2% (2018 est.)

arable land: 22% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 37% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 21.93% (2018 est.)

forest: 19.3% (2018 est.)

other: 36.5% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 32.5% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 4.75% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

total population growth rate v. urban population growth rate, 2000-2030

Revenue from forest resources

forest revenues: 4.54% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

coal revenues: 0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Major infectious diseases

degree of risk: very high (2020)

food or waterborne diseases: bacterial and protozoal diarrhea, hepatitis A, and typhoid fever

vectorborne diseases: dengue fever and malaria

water contact diseases: schistosomiasis

animal contact diseases: rabies

respiratory diseases: meningococcal meningitis

note: on 21 March 2022, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a Travel Alert for polio in Africa; Burkina Faso is currently considered a high risk to travelers for circulating vaccine-derived polioviruses (cVDPV); vaccine-derived poliovirus (VDPV) is a strain of the weakened poliovirus that was initially included in oral polio vaccine (OPV) and that has changed over time and behaves more like the wild or naturally occurring virus; this means it can be spread more easily to people who are unvaccinated against polio and who come in contact with the stool or respiratory secretions, such as from a sneeze, of an “infected” person who received oral polio vaccine; the CDC recommends that before any international travel, anyone unvaccinated, incompletely vaccinated, or with an unknown polio vaccination status should complete the routine polio vaccine series; before travel to any high-risk destination, the CDC recommends that adults who previously completed the full, routine polio vaccine series receive a single, lifetime booster dose of polio vaccine

Food insecurity

severe localized food insecurity: due to civil insecurity in the north - according to the latest analysis, 3.45 million people are projected to be food insecure and in need of humanitarian assistance between June and August 2022; in Centre-Nord and Sahel regions, insecurity continues to cause population displacements and, as of March 2022, about 1.85 million people had been displaced and required assistance; domestic cereal production in 2021 was estimated at a below-average level due to effects of adverse weather and civil conflict, further aggravating conditions; abnormally high prices of food are also a contributory factor that have constrained access to food; the coup d’état that occurred in January 2022 is an additional factor that could increase civil insecurity and further stress food insecurity conditions (2022)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 2,575,251 tons (2015 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 309,030 tons (2005 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 12% (2005 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Volta river source (shared with Ghana [m]) - 1,600 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: Niger (2,261,741 sq km), Volta (410,991 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 375.6 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

industrial: 21.7 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

agricultural: 420.7 million cubic meters (2017 est.)

Total renewable water resources

13.5 billion cubic meters (2017 est.)

NOTE: The information regarding Burkina Faso on this page is re-published from the 2022 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Burkina Faso 2022 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Burkina Faso 2022 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.