In southwest Burkina Faso, there is a tree for which the inhabitants are worried about its future. It is Isoberlinia doka, a large tree exploited for its wood. Unfortunately, it is on the red list of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN): it is endangered.

A lower presence due to the major droughts of the 1970s and 1980s, and an increasing cultivation of the savannah (cereals, cotton) following the influx of populations from the center and the north. So much so that today, the presence of Isoberlinia is only observed in places.

Ceremonies that are fundamental to society

However, this tree plays an important role among the inhabitants. “In this region of Voltaic culture, there are a myriad of peoples, governed by a traditional leader, without centralized power above the villages, declaring themselves either Muslims (30%), or even animists (30%), or still animists (30%), but maintaining a strong attachment to traditions,” explains Anne Fournier, an ethnobotanist at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD), who lived in Burkina Faso for ten years.