Africa Palaeofires Workshop, October 2008

The Global Palaeofire Working Group (GPWG) is one component of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme’s cross-project activity on fire. The aim of the GPWG is to explore the relationships between changes in fire regimes, climate, vegetation and human activities as documented by the palaeo-record. Since mid-2006 the group has engaged an international network of scientists to create a research database of charcoal records. The first version of the database was used to analyse global patterns in fire regimes since the last glacial maximum. Although Africa was included in the global synthesis, the current database contains very few sites from the continent, and the group decided that data-gathering for this region should be a major priority in the coming year. To encourage more scientists from the continent to join the GPWG, to contribute to the database, and to participate in ongoing analyses and activities, there will be a workshop focusing on Africa, most likely in Nairobi in October 2008. The goal of the workshop is to analyse the
available charcoal data from Africa. Registration for the workshop has been extended to mid-February -- see the group's web site for more information.