Every dry season, large parts of Ghana’s savannah belt are set alight. The fires may begin as a means of clearing farmland, controlling pests, renewing pasture, producing charcoal or facilitating hunting, but they rarely end at the boundaries of the fields where they were started. They spread across grasslands, woodlands and farming communities, leaving behind smoke-filled skies, exposed soils and increasingly fragmented vegetation. The recurrence has become so predictable that it can be described as an “annual burning festival.” Yet this is no celebration – it is a national environmental, agricultural, and public health emergency unfolding in plain sight.
For many years, bush burning in our country has been discussed primarily as a rural land-management practice – and this framing is now inadequate. The consequences extend far beyond the farmer in our villages preparing a field or the hunter pursuing game. Repeated burning affects the country’s capacity to produce food, retain fertile soils, conserve water, protect biodiversity, regulate local climatic conditions and provide clean air. It also transfers substantial costs to households, health facilities, local authorities and future generations. What appears to be a cheap and convenient method of land preparation may, in reality, be an expensive form of environmental decline.
This concern is especially important because Ghana’s savannah ecological zone covers close to half of the country’s land area, including the Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East, Upper West, Oti, and Bono East regions. The zone significantly supports the production of maize, millet, sorghum and other food commodities, while also providing grazing land, fuelwood, shea trees, wetlands, wildlife habitats and essential ecosystem services. Its environmental condition is therefore inseparable from Ghana’s food security, rural economy, and climate resilience.
Our study, After the Flames and Smoke, Then What? Spatial Analysis and Heterogeneity Modeling of Bushfire Effects on Vegetation Health and Air Quality in Ghana, examined the relationship between bushfires, vegetation change, and atmospheric pollution across the savannah zone. Using satellite imagery, land-cover classification, vegetation and burn-severity indices, air-pollution datasets, and spatial statistical modelling, we compared conditions during the 2019/2020 and 2024/2025 fire cycles.
The analysis covered the periods before burning, during the start of the fire season, and after the fires.
The evidence points to an ecological system under severe pressure. Burn severity affected more than 60% of the landscape examined, with the most intense burning generally occurring between December and February. During active fire periods, more than 70% of the landscape displayed vegetation stress. The relationship between burn severity and declining vegetation health was also statistically significant, confirming that the visible loss of green cover is not merely an ordinary seasonal change. Recurrent fire is an important driver of the deterioration. Our land-cover results are particularly disturbing. During the fire seasons examined, vegetation cover declined from approximately 50 % in 2019/2020 to about 20 %in 2024/2025. This represents a net reduction of roughly 32,573 square kilometres (59.1%). Over the same period, non-vegetated areas – including burnt land, exposed soil, settlements, agricultural surfaces and other degraded areas – increased substantially. Although fire is not the only cause of land-cover change, the close relationship among burn patterns, vegetation stress and the expansion of non-vegetated surfaces indicates that repeated burning is contributing significantly to the transformation of the savannah landscape.
The implications for food production should concern every Ghanaian, as agriculture depends on more than access to land. It depends on healthy soils, organic matter, moisture retention, pollinators, shade trees, stable water systems and vegetation that protects the ground from wind and erosion. And so, fire may release nutrients into the soil temporarily, but recurrent and poorly controlled burning can progressively destroy soil organic matter, expose the surface to erosion and reduce the biological activity required for long-term productivity. Farmers may then be compelled to cultivate larger areas or use more external inputs simply to maintain previous levels of production.
Vegetation loss also weakens the resilience of farming systems to a changing climate. Trees, shrubs and grasses help slow surface runoff, protect riverbanks, retain soil moisture and moderate temperatures. When large areas are repeatedly stripped of vegetation, rainfall is more likely to run rapidly across hardened or exposed surfaces rather than infiltrate the soil. The result can be a damaging combination of flash flooding during intense rainfall, water scarcity after the rains and prolonged agricultural drought. Our study did not directly measure changes in rainfall, but the scale of vegetation degradation raises serious concerns about the landscape’s capacity to regulate water and withstand increasingly variable climatic conditions.
The vegetation-health analysis emphasises these concerns – before the fires, more than 80% of the landscape was generally within moderate-to-high vegetation-health categories. During the active burning period, mean vegetation-health values fell sharply, while approximately 77 to 79% of the landscape shifted into the low-health category. Some areas showed post-fire regrowth, showing that savannah ecosystems retain a degree of natural resilience. However, recovery was uneven, and repeated burning risks shortening the interval available for trees, grasses, soils and wildlife habitats to recover before the next fire season begins.
The crisis is not confined to the land – the atmosphere is also changing. Fine particulate matter, commonly known as PM2.5, increased substantially during the fire-active periods. In parts of the north and central savannah, concentrations during the 2024/2025 fire-start season reached between approximately 66 and 90 micrograms per cubic metre, more than double some pre-fire levels. Sulphur dioxide and carbon monoxide also increased in identifiable hotspots. The pollution did not disappear immediately after the flames went out. Higher particulate levels persisted in some areas, indicating that atmospheric recovery can lag behind the visible end of the fire. This is where bush burning becomes an urgent public health matter: PM2.5 particles are small enough to penetrate deep into the lungs and, in some cases, enter the bloodstream. Repeated exposure to smoke and polluted air is associated with respiratory and cardiovascular harm, including aggravated asthma, breathing difficulties, chronic lung conditions and increased stress on the heart. Carbon monoxide reduces the blood’s ability to transport oxygen, while other pollutants and irritants can worsen symptoms among children, older people, pregnant women and individuals with existing health conditions.
Our research did not directly count hospital admissions or diagnose diseases attributable to bushfire smoke. It would therefore be inappropriate for us to claim that the study alone has quantified an increase in cardiovascular or pulmonary disease. What it establishes is a worsening pattern of exposure and a strong spatial relationship between burning, vegetation decline and pollutant concentrations. That evidence should be sufficient to trigger public health surveillance, exposure assessments and targeted epidemiological studies. Therefore, we believe that waiting until every illness has been individually attributed to smoke would be an unacceptable approach to prevention.
Ghana’s challenge is not simply the behaviour of individual farmers, hunters, or charcoal producers. Fire use is embedded in rural economies where people may lack affordable alternatives for clearing land, controlling weeds or managing crop residues. And so, we think a response based only on punishment will simply therefore fail. The deeper policy problem is the absence of a coherent, adequately financed, and consistently implemented national system connecting fire management with agriculture, land-use planning, climate adaptation, environmental protection, and public health. The study describes this as an eco-anthropogenic paradox: fire supports immediate livelihood needs while progressively damaging the ecological and atmospheric foundations on which those livelihoods depend.
Government need to consequently further recurrent bush burning from a seasonal local problem to a national policy priority. Institutions responsible for agriculture, environment, lands, forestry, local government, disaster management, fire services, and public health should operate within a common national framework. Such a framework should establish clear responsibilities for fire prevention, controlled burning, enforcement, ecological restoration, air-quality monitoring, health protection and public communication. It should also require coordinated action at regional, district and community levels rather than isolated annual campaigns launched only when fires become uncontrollable (which we barely see happening in the past decades).
Spatial evidence should become central to this response. The satellite and statistical methods used in our study demonstrate that fire severity, vegetation vulnerability, and pollution hotspots can be mapped. These tools can support an operational early-warning system that identifies high-risk districts before the burning season, tracks active fires, evaluates damage and directs resources towards vulnerable communities.
District assemblies and emergency agencies should receive timely maps and seasonal risk information, while the public should receive clear warnings about smoke exposure and dangerous fire conditions. The study specifically recommends vulnerability mapping, early-warning systems, land-use planning, and public health interventions.
Agricultural policy must also provide realistic alternatives, as farmers cannot be expected to abandon burning when safer land-preparation and residue-management options are inaccessible or unaffordable. Support should include access to appropriate machinery, extension services, composting and mulching methods, conservation agriculture, agroforestry and incentives for retaining trees on farms. Community fire volunteers should be trained and equipped, but their role must extend beyond fighting flames. They should help establish firebreaks, conduct authorised early burning where ecologically appropriate, report violations, and support community education.
Public health institutions need to be involved before, during, and after the fire season. We (Ghana) require stronger air-quality monitoring across the savannah belt, seasonal smoke advisories, and guidance for schools, clinics, outdoor workers, and vulnerable households. Health facilities in frequently affected districts should systematically record respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms during the burning season.
These records can help determine whether periods of high pollution correspond with increases in emergency visits, asthma attacks, breathing complications, or other health outcomes. Health-impact assessments should become a standard component of national fire and land-management programmes.
Ecological restoration must accompany enforcement and prevention. Severely degraded areas, riverbanks, wetlands, grazing lands and community woodlands require targeted protection and restoration. Native trees and grasses should be prioritised, and communities should receive incentives to protect regenerating areas from repeated fires. The objective should not be to eliminate all fire from savannah ecosystems, because carefully managed fire can serve legitimate ecological and livelihood purposes. The objective is to replace uncontrolled, repetitive, and destructive burning with systematically informed, locally legitimate, and accountable fire management.
As we have stated before, even so, we conclude that the flames may last only a few hours, but their consequences remain in the soil, the air, the farms, and the human body. We cannot continue treating the smoke-filled dry season as an unavoidable feature of northern life. The country must recognise that recurrent bush burning is simultaneously a food-security risk, a climate-resilience challenge, an environmental governance failure, and a public health threat. The evidence is now visible from space and measurable in the atmosphere.
This helps us now move from the questioning of whether action is necessary – to whether government, communities, and national institutions will act before another generation inherits a savannah that can no longer adequately feed, protect, or sustain them.
The underlying study recommends integrating fire management into wider land-use policy, strengthening community-based governance, expanding public education, conducting health-impact assessments and coordinating responses across administrative boundaries.
Evidence base: Liwur, S.B., Adam, A.R. & Tagnan, J.N. (2025), “After the flames and smoke, then what? Spatial analysis and heterogeneity modelling of bushfire effects on vegetation health and air quality in Ghana,” Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment 41, 101854.
Summary
POLICY BOTTOM LINE: Recurrent bush burning is no longer only a rural land-management issue. It is degrading the ecological infrastructure on which northern Ghana’s food production, water security and public health depend. Government should treat the annual fire season as a coordinated national risk – not a routine local event.
A familiar practice has become a systemic threat
Every dry season, large parts of Ghana’s savannah belt are set alight for land clearing, pasture management, hunting and pest control. Fire remains a cheap and culturally embedded tool for rural livelihoods. But the scale, frequency and timing of burning have changed its role. What once could support limited land management is increasingly functioning as an annual “burning festival” that strips vegetation, exposes soil and fills the atmosphere with smoke.
The savannah ecological zone covers about 111,285 square kilometers – close to half of Ghana’s land area – and includes the Northern, Savannah, North East, Upper East, Upper West, Oti and Bono East regions. It is central to national food supply, livestock production, biodiversity and rural incomes. Damage in this zone therefore does not remain a northern problem; it is transmitted to food prices, public expenditure, health services and climate vulnerability across the country.
What the empirical (satellite) evidence shows
LANDSCAPE BURNED VEGETATION STRESS VEGETATION COVER AIR POLLUTION
More than 60% affected by burn severity; peak burning occurs from December to February. More than 70% of the landscape showed low vegetation health during active fire periods. Fire-season vegetation cover fell from 55,113 km² to 22,541 km² – a 59.1% decline between the two study cycles. PM2.5 increased from 28 to 35 µg/m³ in the study summary; CO and SO2 also rose and formed spatial hotspots.
Source: Liwur et al. (2025)
The study used satellite imagery and spatial modeling to compare the 2019/2020 and 2024/2025 fire cycles. It found that the later cycle entered the fire season with more stressed and fragmented vegetation, experienced broader fire and pollution hotspots, and showed atmospheric effects that persisted after visible vegetation began to recover.
Why this matters for food, rain and health
• Food production: Repeated burning removes protective cover, weakens soil fertility and moisture retention, fragments productive landscapes and increases the vulnerability of maize, millet, sorghum, livestock and tree-based livelihoods such as shea.
• Rain and water resilience: Vegetation supports infiltration, local cooling, watershed protection and moisture recycling. The study does not directly estimate rainfall change, but the scale of vegetation loss signals a serious erosion of the region’s capacity to absorb climate shocks and regulate water.
• Public health: Smoke exposure is linked in the wider scientific literature to respiratory and cardiovascular harm. This study did not count hospital cases, so it should not be used to claim a measured rise in disease. It does, however, show that exposure conditions and pollutant hotspots have worsened – strong grounds for urgent health surveillance and prevention.
The real policy gap: implementation, coordination, and modernisation
Ghana is not starting from a complete legal vacuum. The Control and Prevention of Bushfires Act, 1990 (PNDCL 229) prohibits uncontrolled bushfires and requires district bushfire sub-committees, local by-laws, controlled early-burning programs, fire volunteer squads, public education, and incident reporting. The problem is that recurrent burning at today’s scale exposes a wide implementation gap, weak enforcement, and an outdated separation between fire control, agriculture, climate policy, air quality, and health protection.
CENTRAL RECOMMENDATION: Create a National Savannah Fire, Food, and Health Action Plan that turns existing legal duties into funded, measurable, and publicly reported action before each dry season.
Five actions government can take.
1. Make bush burning an inter-ministerial national risk. Place the issue jointly under the ministries responsible for lands and natural resources, food and agriculture, environment, health, local government, and the interior. Establish one accountable coordinating mechanism with annual targets for prevention, response, restoration, and health protection.
2. Enforce and update the 1990 Bushfires Act. Audit every fire-prone district for functioning bushfire sub-committees, by-laws, volunteer squads and reporting systems. Update the law to distinguish authorised ecological or agricultural burning from uncontrolled burning, clarify permits and liabilities, and align penalties with present-day realities.
3. Build an authorised early-warning and public information system. Use NBR, NDVI, active-fire, and air-quality data to publish district hotspot maps and weekly alerts from November to April. Link alerts to Ghana National Fire Service, NADMO, district assemblies, extension officers, traditional authorities, radio stations, and health facilities.
4. Protect the food-producing landscape and finance alternatives. Prioritise firebreaks, riparian buffers, community woodlots, assisted natural regeneration, and restoration of repeatedly burnt areas. Farmers should receive practical alternatives – mechanised or low-burn land preparation, residue management, extension support and incentives – rather than enforcement alone.
5. Treat smoke as a seasonal public-health hazard. Expand ground-level air monitoring in northern Ghana; issue health advisories during severe smoke episodes; equip clinics to track respiratory and cardiovascular presentations; and protect children, older people, pregnant women, people with chronic illness, and outdoor workers.
The choice before us (Ghana)
The annual flames may disappear after a few days, but their consequences remain in thinner vegetation, weaker soils, polluted air and increasingly fragile livelihoods. Ghana must move beyond seasonal appeals to “stop bushfires” and build a prevention system that recognises why communities use fire, provides workable alternatives and holds institutions accountable. Protecting the savannah is not only conservation, but food-security policy, climate-adaptation policy, and preventive health policy.
Evidence base: Liwur, S.B., Adam, A.R. & Tagnan, J.N. (2025), “After the flames and smoke, then what? Spatial analysis and heterogeneity modelling of bushfire effects on vegetation health and air quality in Ghana,” Remote Sensing Applications: Society and Environment 41, 101854.
Legal context: Control and Prevention of Bushfires Act, 1990 (PNDCL 229), Ghana.
