Burkina Faso: A Brief Introduction

Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in the Sahel region of West Africa. Its population of 21 million is about 70% rural.1 Like other Sahelian countries, it is prone to highly variable seasonal and annual rainfall that decreases from the dry woodlands of the south to the edge of the Sahara Desert in the north.2 In 1987, its revolutionary Marxist-Leninist leader Thomas Sankara was assassinated in a coup supported by its former colonial ruler, France.3 Following decades of authoritarian rule, Burkina Faso is currently controlled by a military junta that seized power in a January 2022 coup. This regime justifies its resistance to democratic transition on the basis of security threats posed by Al Qaeda and IS linked insurgency.4

Mapping Major Climate Events and Climate-Induced Displacement

In 2020, 20,000 people were displaced by natural disasters in Burkina Faso.5 As in Mali, this displacement was mostly caused by flooding. Also as in Mali, reduced rainfall and the increased difficult of farming triggers ongoing rural internal migration.6 The total number of internally displaced persons has been growing rapidly in recent years, largely due to the increasing activity of violent insurgent groups. This activity displaced 515,000 people in 2020, bringing Burkina Faso’s total IDP population to over 1.7 million.5

Mapping the Costs of the Climate Crisis

Burkina Faso is heavily reliant on agriculture, which makes up 18% of its GDP and accounts for 80% of employment.7 As in much of the Sahel region, most Burkinabe agriculture is small scale and subsistence, making it particularly vulnerable to changing rainfall patterns.8 Because the vast majority of cereals consumed in Burkina Faso are produced domestically, decreased yields caused by changing environmental conditions pose a great danger to food availability.9 Increased temperatures are already likely causing lower yields in sorghum, which accounts for 44% of Burkinabe cereal production.10 The World Food Programme estimates that 3.3 million Burkinabe people already face food insecurity.11 Besides affecting agriculture, water scarcity also impacts urban areas, where long queues at community standpipe and waterborne illness caused by poor sanitation are common.12  

Mapping Resilience and Migration Pathways

Burkina Faso shares with other countries in the Sahel a minimal contribution to global emissions and a high vulnerability to food scarcity, water shortage, and environmental health risks aggravated by climate change. Like other Sahelian countries, its national approach to managing the effects of climate change is oriented around sustainable development, as embodied in the 2014 framework law on sustainable development, which is meant to serve as a guiding framework.13 The greatest share of expenses proposed in Burkina Faso’s NDC are allocated to adaptation. The costliest proposed measures include a series of landscape restoration, agricultural development, and irrigation projects.14 Some of these measures are orchestrated under REDD+, the World Bank administered initiative to reduce emissions from deforestation and forest degradation. The NDC estimates all proposed adaptation and mitigation measures to require an additional $2.5 billion.15 Despite Burkina Faso’s miniscule greenhouse gas emissions, emissions reduction occupies the earlier pages of the NDC, which emphasizes reducing emissions from the agriculture, forestry, and other land use (AFAT sector).16 Burkina Faso’s current revised NDC is supported by members of the NDC partnership, including international organization, the EU, and several European countries.17  

Necessary Changes

Burkina Faso has little ability to impact global emissions, yet is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change on food production and water availability. Though Burkina Faso’s NDC is not particularly ambitious or costly, implementing it will be difficult under the current political situation. Burkinabe farmers are already aware of climatic changes – in one survey, 90% of farmers revealed they felt climate had grown hotter in the past 20 years.18 Farmers are adapting to these changes by implementing soil and water conservation techniques, planting water-stress tolerant crops, and managing drainage to reduce losses from flooding.19 Internationally supported adaptation efforts should support these methods and other work currently being done on the ground to protect agricultural output in the face of changing weather patterns.