Burkina Faso (the former Haute Volta, Upper Volta) is one of the ten poorest countries of the world - but one of the proudest: in More and Diula, the country's major native idioms, B.F. means "the land of upright people" or "the country of the honest people". Half of this landlocked nation (277 000 sq km in all) partakes of the Sahel zone and is belaguered by the Sahara. Drought, overstocking, locusts, the use of bushes and trees as fuel for cooking fires and warming living spaces further the desert's agenda (desertification) Baobab (Adansonia digitata), a characteristic tree, photographed at White Volta.