Ferlo is an inland continuation of the western plains and is semi-desert. It can be divided into two distinct sub regions: sandy Ferlo to the west and the ferruginous Ferlo to the east. Sandy Ferlo is the heart of Senegal’s woodland pastoral zone. It comprises a vast area of ancient dunes now reduced to terrain of flat or gently rolling windblown sands.

Ferlo was covered by a savannah landscape marked by grasslands and a diverse tree species. Today, the vegetation is much more open and lacks diversity.

It is a barren, flat, scorched place bounded on the north by the Sénégal River and the south by the Sahelian plain studded with baobab trees made renowned in Le Petit Prince. Matam is inhabited by the tall noble Pulaar-speaking Toucouleur people who brought Islam to Senegal in the eighteenth century and gave the music of Baaba Maal in the twenty-first century.

The sandy pastoral zone in the south has significantly higher rainfall. The area still is lightly populated, but it is feeling the effects of aggressive agricultural expansion.