Recently, Ian of Equatoria brought to our attention NASA’s map of fires and thermal anomalies, which shows a satellite view of the globe with dots representing individual fires or hot spots.
The first thing you’ll note when looking at the map is the swath of red creating a belt across Sub-Sahara Africa. What is it, some sort of fire wall blazing a line through the continent?
No, actually. These points represent a large number of small-scale fires, rather than one large inferno. During the current dry months, many people set fires to burn crop remains, preparing the land for the next season. Meanwhile, hunters are lighting fires to flush out animals.
Ian says that this last point is a particular problem in South Sudan, where hunting fires have been known to grow out of control, damaging people and property.
”This sadly is a yearly occurrence and we feel that one way to protect the environment is by growing coffee and people will then protect the coffee against fire and that way protect the environment.”
Ian tells us, with the hope that if the local community see coffee as a source of income, this can act as an incentive to protect the land it grows on.
More information on this belt of fires can be found in a 2022 article posted by NASA.