DAKAR, Senegal (AP) — While the world has turned its gaze to fires burning in Brazil's Amazon rainforest, satellite images show a far greater number of blazes on the African continent.

NASA says that at least 70% of the 10,000 fires burning worldwide on an average August day are in Africa. Yet the agency says their number is consistent from year to year.

Experts say African fires mostly burn across savanna lands and on fields cultivated by small farmers. Although scientists say they do not pose the same threat to the environment as the Amazon fires, some warn that burning areas for agriculture purposes needs to be better managed to protect nearby forests.