In the context of land degradation prevention, this study clarifies the impact of fire on savanna vegetation in northwestern Madagascar. The role of fires in shaping trends in savanna vegetation cover was addressed though a landscape-scale analysis of a fire regime indicator, which combined fire seasonality and frequency, and an indicator of vegetation cover change derived from MODIS time series data. For each type of savanna vegetation cover, multivariate regression models were fitted to the observed trends. While fires are a savanna management tool, their seasonal usage and frequency should be adapted according to land use (agriculture, pastoralism, protected area)