The central plateau of Burkina Faso has been pointed out as one of the areas hit hardest by desertification during the Sahel droughts in the 1970's and 1980's, but Herrmann et al. (2005) identified a stronger than average recovery over the last 20 years over the plateau. In this study the plateau shows the highest rate of increase in rainfall in Sahel over the last 2 decades. This rainfall increase has also fed a very strong vegetation recovery. The RUE, however, only shows an increase along the northern fringes (the border with Mali), but is otherwise negligible, or even negative. The southern, agriculturally dominated parts of the country show relative higher increases in vRUE, which can be related to improved agricultural management, also seen in the country production statistics (Olsson et al., 2005). Click here for NPP trend map. Click here for RUE .