Burkina Faso is largely wild bush country with a mixture of grass and small trees in varying proportions. The savanna region is mainly grassland in the rainy season and semi desert during the harmattan period (defined as the period when stormy and dusty Sahara winds blow dry and hot). Fauna, one of the most diverse in West Africa, includes the elephant, hippopotamus, buffalo, monkey, lions, crocodile, giraffe, various types of antelope, and a vast variety of bird and insect life. The country has 147 mammal species, 330 aquatic species including 121 species of fish and 2067 different plant species.Adjima Thiombiano, Marco Schmidt, Stefan Dressler, Amadé Ouédraogo, Karen Hahn, Georg Zizka. 2012. Catalogue des plantes vasculaires du Burkina Faso. Boissiera 65, Conservatoire et Jardin Botaniques de la ville de Genève. 391 S. Of the plant species, the dominant endemic species are shea tree (Butyrospermum parkii) and the baobab, the former plant species has immense economic value to the country.
Four national parks have been established. These are the Po National Park in the south-centre of the country, Arli National Park established in 1954 in the southeast, W of the Niger National Park, a trans frontier park existing since 1957 in the east bordering Benin and Niger and the Deux Balés National Park. The forests, fauna and fish have been declared part of the national estate of Burkina Faso. In addition, the List of national parks of Burkina Faso consist of one UNESCO Biosphere reserve, three complete reserves, six partial reserves and ten protected forests. However, according to conservation classification conducted between 1936 and 1957, the country has 78 protected areas that cover , which accounts to about 14% of the area of the country.
Geography
Wildlife area in the landlocked Burkina Faso in western Africa is spread over a plateau area of . The dominant habitat types are the grassy savanna in the north with transition to the varying thin forests in the south. In Burkina Faso forest cover is around 23% of the total land area, equivalent to of forest in 2020, down from in 1990. In 2020, naturally regenerating forest covered and planted forest covered . Of the naturally regenerating forest 0% was reported to be primary forest (consisting of native tree species with no clearly visible indications of human activity) and around 16% of the forest area was found within protected areas. For the year 2015, 100% of the forest area was reported to be under public ownership.
Based on ecological characteristics and climatic conditions, the country is divided under three bio-climatic zones namely, the Sahelian Zone, the Sudanian Zone and the Sudano-Guinean Zone. The Sahelian Zone covers 25% of the area of the northern part of the country, which is further subdivided under the Sahelian and sub-Sahelian sectors. In the Sahelian sector, where the rainfall is only of the order of , the vegetation is mostly of shrubs and wooded grassland or steppe. The sub-Sahelian sector represents the transition zone, receives an average annual rainfall of and represents the transition between the Sahelian and Sudanian bioclimatic zones. The vegetation in this sector has moist Sudan savanna vegetation in the river valleys, while the western half is largely inhabited by humans; most of the large trees in the northern half of the sector are reported to have vanished due to climate change. The Sudan Zone receives higher rainfall in the range of and is further subdivided into three sectors namely, the central plateau sector, the Mouhoun sector and the Pendjari–Mékrou sector and has widely varying vegetation depending on human occupation for agriculture and mostly savanna vegetation, predominantly wooded savanna. the Pendjari–Mékrou sector with its floodplains and many ephemeral rivers, is less populated by humans but has the largest population of mammals in the country; vultures and raptors are also reported. The Sudano-Guinean Zone in the southwest corner of the country is a humid zone with an annual rainfall in the range of . It is heavily wooded with wooded savannas and gallery forests; it has the ambience of a park with its widespread vegetation of Khaya senegalensis, Daniellia oliveri and Isoberlinia forests, tall grasses and savanna vegetation is also a dominant feature. Its human population distribution is low but the wildlife population is the second largest in the country.
The area is drained by many rivers, the most important of them being the Black Volta (Mouhoun), the Red Volta (Nazinon), and the White Volta (Nakambé), which flow into Ghana on the south and form the Volta River.
Climate Rainy season (June to September) is one of the four seasons in Burkina Faso; the other three being, an intermediate season from September to mid November, the summer of harmattan season of the Sahara hot and stormy winds (mid February to mid June) and the dry and winter cool season from mid November to mid February. During the rainy season is when the shrubs and stunted trees flourish in the savanna in the northern region where rainfall incidence is about 10 inches and the rivers flow full with dense vegetation growing in the southern region of the country when the rainfall incidence is as high as .
National Parks There are four important national parks in Burkina Faso namely, the Arli National Park existing since 1954, the Deux Balés National Park, Kaboré Tambi National Park and the W of the Niger National Park which is a trans-boundary park existing since 1957.
Arli National Park
The Arli National Park, covering an area of , lies to the southwest of Arli–W–Singou complex. It borders with Benin (the Pendjari River forms the boundary) and Singou Game Ranch on its northwest direction and has large network of drainage system which has vast flood plains. Within the park boundary, the Falaise de Gobnangou is a prominent hill feature with cliffs that extends over from the southwest to the northeast. The park also has many inselbergs. Shrub and tree-savanna (extensive growth of Isoberlinia doka) in the non-flooded areas, Mitragyna inermis with gallery forests in seasonally flooded areas, baobab Adansonia digitata trees near old village sites are some of the vegetation types found in the park.
Deux Balés National Park
The Deux Balés National Park, is located in central eastern Burkina Faso, within Mouhoun Province. It is situated to the west of the Black Volta River. It has an elevation range of . The park was first established in 1937 as the forêts classées des Deux Balés ('the Deux Balés Classified Forests') with an area of . In 2001, the largest number of elephants in West Africa were found in Deux Balés (together with Baporo Forest), estimated at four hundred of them.
Kaboré Tambi National Park
The Kaboré Tambi National Park is situated between Ouagadougou and the border with Ghana. It follows the course of the Nazinon River. It was founded in 1976 as Pô National Park or known as Parc National Kaboré Tambi (PNKT). The park has an area of in the alluvial floodplain on both banks of the ephemeral Volta Rouge River; the river results to small water holes during the summer season. A number of small marshes and lakes also dominate the scene. It maintains contiguity with the Nazinga Game Ranch of area, the Sissili Hunting Concession of ha and the village hunting zones around Nazinga and Sissili villages. The park has varied topography with geological formations of granite outcrops, lateritic plateaus and several isolated high mountains. The vegetation types found here are northern Sudan savanna, shrub savanna, tree-savanna and gallery forests. The park is home to lion, elephant, buffalo and a number of antelope species. Poaching and deforestation activities are an issue in the park. The main road from Ouagadougou to Bolgatanga in northern Ghana runs across the park.
W of the Niger National Park
The W of the Niger National Park was created in August 1954. It is a major national park of the three countries of Niger, Benin and Burkina Faso, and is governed by the three governments. It is around a meander in the River Niger shaped like a "W". Until 2008, the implementation of a regional management was supported by the EU-funded Project ECOPAS (French: Ecosystèmes Protégés en Afrique Soudano-Sahélienne). The three national parks operate under the name W Transborder Park. In the three nations, the park covers about , largely uninhabited by humans, having been until the 1970s a malarial zone of wetlands formed by the delta of the Mékrou River with the Niger, broken by rocky hills. It was declared a Ramsar site in 1990. A cattle route from Mail and Niger to Tago passes through the park creating conservation problems which are proposed to be tackled through many conservation and biodiversity support programmes.
Fauna As of 2006, Burkina Faso is considered to be one of the West African countries with the largest faunal population.
Mammals
Mammals in Burkina Faso include aardvark, African bush elephant, African civet, African clawless otter, African golden cat, African ground squirrel, West African wild dog, western dwarf buffalo, bushbuck, Cape hare, Cape hyrax, caracal, Northwest African cheetah, common chimpanzee, common genet, Dorcas gazelle, fennec fox, four-toed hedgehog, giant pangolin, West African giraffe, Egyptian wolf, Hausa genet, hippopotamus, African leopard, West African lion, olive baboon, oribi, pale fox, patas monkey, honey badger, red-fronted gazelle, reedbuck, roan antelope, rusty-spotted genet, Senegal bushbaby, serval, side-striped jackal, slender mongoose, speckle-throated otter, spotted hyena, striped hyena, striped polecat, sun squirrel, tree pangolin, warthog, water chevrotain, western hartebeest, white-tailed mongoose and African wildcat.
The common chimpanzee is considered locally extinct in Burkina Faso, but may be migrating back into the country during the rainy season. Hyena are widespread but at low densities.
Reptiles
Three crocodile species are found in the wild, slender-snouted crocodile, Nile crocodile, and dwarf crocodile. According to BirdLife International, there are 119 migrant birds which visit the country out of which 81 belong to Palaearctic species including two species namely Falco naumanni (vulnerable) and Gallinago media (near threatened) of global conservation concern. There are also 10 Important Bird Areas (IBAs) identified which cover 20260 km2 accounting for 7.4% area of the country.
Birds