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The Sahel region is a unique part of Africa that exists as a thin band bordered on the North by the Sahara desert and on the South by more lush, tropical savannahs. In the image below, the Sahel region is represented by the brown band that stretches from west to east and includes eight African nations. The
The purpose of these activities is to introduce students to the factors that contribute to desertification and solutions that have been implemented in the Sahel region of West Africa. The lessons correspond with a PBS LearningMedia video called “Farming the Desert” from the EARTH A New Wild series.
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- Geography
- Flora and Fauna
- Climate
- Culture
- Etymology
- History
- Recent Droughts
- Desertification and Soil Loss
- Protected Areas
The Sahel spans 5,900 km (3,670 mi) from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Red Seain the east, in a belt several hundred to a thousand kilometers (c. 600 miles) wide. It covers an area of 3,053,200 square kilometers (1,178,850 sq mi). Representing a climatic and ecological transition zone with hot steppe conditions, the Sahel region borders the...
The Sahel is mostly covered in grassland and savanna, with areas of woodland and shrubland. Grass cover is fairly continuous across the region, dominated by annual grass species such as Cenchrus biflorus, Schoenefeldia gracilis and Aristida stipoides. Species of acacia are the dominant trees, with Acacia tortilis the most common, along with Acacia ...
The Sahel has a tropical semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSh). The climate is typically hot, sunny, dry and somewhat windy all year long. The Sahel's climate is similar to, but less extreme than, the climate of the Sahara desert located just to the north. The Sahel mainly receives a low to very low amount of precipitation annually....
Traditionally, most of the people in the Sahel have been semi-nomads, farming and raising livestock in a system of transhumance. The difference between the dry North with higher levels of soil nutrients and the wetter South with more vegetation, is utilized by having the herds graze on high-quality feed in the North during the wet season, and trek ...
The term "Sahel" is borrowed from the Arabic name for the region, الساحل al-sāḥil. Sāḥil literally means "coast, shore", which has been explained as a figurative reference to the southern edge of the vast Sahara. However, such use is unattested in Classical Arabic, and it has been suggested that the word may originally have been derived from the Ar...
Early agriculture
Around 4000 BC, the climate of the Sahara and the Sahel started to become drier at an exceedingly fast pace. This climate change caused lakes and rivers to shrink significantly and caused increasing desertification. This, in turn, decreased the amount of land conducive to settlements and caused migrations of farming communities to the more humid climate of West Africa.
Sahelian kingdoms
The Sahelian kingdoms were a series of monarchies centered in the Sahel between the 9th and 18th centuries. The wealth of the states, like the legendary Mali Empire at the time of Mansa Musa, came from controlling the trans-Saharan trade routes across the desert, especially with the Maghreb. Their power came from having large pack animals like camels and horses that were fast enough to keep a large empire under central control and were also useful in battle. All of these empires were quite de...
Colonial period
The Western Sahel fell to France in the late 19th century as part of French West Africa. Chadwas added in 1900 as part of French Equatorial Africa. The French territories in the Sahel were decolonized in 1960. The Sahel's easternmost region did not fall to the European powers but to the Khedivate of Egypt when it was conquered by Muhammad Ali in the 1820s. By 1899 it came under British ruleuntil granted independence at Egypt's behest in 1956.
For hundreds of years, the Sahel region has experienced frequent droughts and megadroughts. One megadrought lasted from 1450 to 1700, 250 years. There was a major drought in the Sahel in 1914 caused by annual rains far below average, leading to large-scale famine. From 1951 to 2004, the Sahel experienced some of the most consistent and severe droug...
The Sahel region faces environmental issues that are contributing to global warming. If the change in climate in the Sahel region "is not slowed-down and desertification possibly reversed through sustainable practices and any form of reforestation, it is only a matter of time before countries like Niger lose their entire landmass to desert due to u...
Protected areas in the Sahel include Ferlo Nord Wildlife Reserve in Senegal, Sylvo-Pastoral and Partial Faunal Reserve of the Sahel in Burkina Faso, Ansonga-Ménake Faunal Reserve in Mali, Tadres Reserve in Niger, and Waza National Park in Cameroon.
most of the year. The natural vegetation in the Sahel is a mix of low-growing grassland, drought-resistant acacia, baobab trees, and other small bushes. In recent years, the Sahel has experienced desertification. Desertification is a process by which the productive land turns into desert—this happens when land becomes progressively drier until
the continent, such as the Sahara and Sahel, while others are isolated areas, such as the Ethiopian Highlands and the Great Lakes. Each of these regions has unique animal and plant communities. Sahara The Sahara is the worlds largest hot desert, covering 8.5 million square kilometers (3.3 million square miles), about
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Jan 31, 2024 · The Sahel region is a semi-arid area in the west and north-central Africa. It is a transitional zone between the dry Sahara to the north and the more humid Sudanian Savannas to the south. Click for PDF and Google Slides worksheets.
Describe the Sahel (it might be helpful to focus on one country in the Sahel, like Burkina Faso): ... Describe the vegetation in the Sahel. Is it tropical, desert, or ...
