Les changements climatiques : vulnérabilité, impacts et adaptation dans le monde de la médecine traditionnelle au Burkina Faso

• Main Author: Élisabeth Benoît
• Format: Article
• Language: fra
• Published: Éditions en environnement VertigO 2008-04-01
• Series: VertigO
• Subjects: adaptation; Burkina Faso; climat variability; climate change; desertification; impact
• Online Access: http://journals.openedition.org/vertigo/1467

In the past decades, located in the Sahel region, Burkina Faso has faced a series of « extreme » climatic events at a pace and scale never seen before. One can think of the recurrent droughts that happened in the past three decades, particularly in the years 1973-74 and 1983-84 that greatly affected the ecosystems as well as the agricultural systems of Burkina Faso. (Burkina Faso, 1999a) The desertification experienced by this country has had some important consequences on both its socioeconomic and biophysical worlds. In Burkina Faso, traditionnal medicine is a ancient heritage. Everyone uses this local, accurate and adapted type of medicine at one point or another. At the count of the impacts of the climate variation and change affecting the country, we can list the biodiversity loss as well as the migration of certain plant species to the south. These transformations in the environment have had some effects on the practice of traditionnal medicine and on the lifestyle of the people who either practice or use it. This paper, based on a qualitative study conducted with practitioners of traditional medicine, discusses the impacts of climate change and variability, the vulnerability of the population to these changes and the privileged adaptation strategies.