ABSTRACT
The natural savanna and dry woodland environments are transitions between the more humid environments (rainforest, Ch. 4) and the arid low-latitude environments (dry, Ch. 5) of Africa. Their position between these two major African environments attests to the importance of moisture as the dominant variable in their relative location. It is for this reason that this chapter begins with a brief inquiry into the climatic limits of this environmental zone. However, in many regions the areal extent of contemporary savanna and dry forest environments largely reflects the major modifications that human activities have induced on the “natural” savannas and dry forests. Thus climatic criteria alone cannot accurately explain the current extent of these environments in Africa today. Clearly, besides the moisture balance as a critical determinant, contemporary savannas and dry forests in many places in Africa reflect generations of human activity, including forest clearing and grass burning.
