Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is bordered by Benin, Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, and Togo. The northern provinces lie in the Sahel, the belt of semi-arid land with low rainfall that fringes the Sahara desert. Here communities are frequently affected by cycles of drought and food shortage. During the dry season, permanent water sources are vital.

Close to Burkina Faso's northern-most border there is a remarkable freshwater lake, the Mare d'Oursi, which is fringed by sand dunes. The lake is a magnet not only to local farmers, herders and livestock, but also to the many species of bird which migrate across the Sahara twice a year, breeding in Europe and spending winter in Africa. Many species of wading birds feed here on their journey, and sand martins and swallows can be seen passing through on their autumn migration.

Further South the rainfall is heavier, supporting the small-scale farming which provides a livelihood for most of the population. Several national parks preserve the wooded grassland (or 'savannah') that once covered most of the country. The Pô and Nazinga reserves, and the Parc d'Arli and Parc du W (yes, it really is spelt like that!) provide a refuge for antelope, baboon, buffalo, elephant, hippo, hyaena, leopard, lion, and warthog, as well as a wide variety of birds.

Most of Burkina Faso is very flat, but in the south-west there are rolling hills, tumbling waterfalls and dense woodlands. The country's second city and former capital, Bobo-Dioulasso, is perched on top of the spectacular rocky cliff of the Falaise de Banfora. This is the wettest part of the country, supporting rice fields and vast plantations of cashew nuts and sugar cane.

The rainy season in Burkina Faso usually begins in June and ends by October. The country is located between 9º and 15º north of the equator, and is warm throughout the year. In the hottest months, from March to May, temperatures rise to over 40º C. People say that in the North, around Gorom Gorom, the sun is hot enough to cook an egg.

Most people in Burkina Faso are farmers who grow cash crops (peanuts, shea nuts, sesame, cotton), and food crops (sorghum, millet, maize, rice and vegetables). Industries include cotton lint, beverages, agricultural processing, soap, cigarettes, textiles, and gold mining. The countries natural resources include manganese, limestone, marble; small deposits of gold, copper, nickel, bauxite, lead, phosphates, zinc, and silver.

The word Sahel is Arabic for edge or shore of the desert, and it refers to a strip of arid land which runs across Africa, from Mauritania and Senegal in the West to Somalia in the East. Water is precious because rainfall is both infrequent and sparse. The region is faced with severe land degradation, caused by increasing desertification and soil erosion - the direct result of deforestation in recent decades.

The Sahel has few natural resources, and drought is a common feature of life. Over the centuries people have developed survival strategies to cope with the harsh climate and arid land, but in recent decades many of these strategies have been abandoned in the name of development, and people have relied on cash crops, including peanuts, shea nuts, and sesame. During the 1970s and 1980s the people of the Sahel experienced drought and famine on an unprecedented scale; the cash crops failed and tens of thousands of people died.