Reforestation - Haiti Observer Blog

As you may know, there is currently a U.N. climate conference taking place in Paris, which runs through Dec. 11. It is one of the most important events of our time, involving leaders of some of the most powerful nations in the world. The objective of the conference is to achieve a legally binding and universal agreement on climate, from all the nations of the world.

Of the many countries at risk from the effects of climate change, small island such as Haiti is considered to be among the most vulnerable to sea level rise due to its high population densities, fragile ecosystems, overstressed water resources and others.

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Ménard is a town built on uneven slopes, with a sandy dirt road leading to it. It lies up from Jalousie, erected on the same area of slope. Power service in Ménard is undependable, and requires action committees of citizens to demand power be available more hours of the day. But the biggest issue facing Ménard is Morne L'Hôpital, slated for reforestation and fighting to defend its boundaries against the incursions of residents, who want to use the stone bunds as building materials for their homes.

The Martelly Administration began a rehabilitation project for the Morne hospital. They would provide many thousands of seedlings, build 48 toilets, erect half a dozen sediment retention ponds, and demarcate the reforestation of the hospital with stone bunds. Little has happened to achieve these goals.

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World Vision (WV), a global development organization, is on an exploratory mission in Haiti to tackle the reforestation problem. WV wants to find areas in Haiti that are most receptive to the Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration (FMNR) project, which has been successful in several African countries.

World Vision Business Manager of Climate Change, Food, and Security, Tim Morris, says the FMNR program uses surviving tree stumps and root systems to bring back deteriorated, unproductive land to farm- and forestlands. He believes Haiti has the right conditions to perform the regeneration, due to the state of the tree stumps, which have been felled to make charcoal.

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The governments of Haiti (GOH) and Dominican Republic (DR) have partnered for the "Re-greening DR-Haiti" reforestation movement. The campaign kicked off at World Environment Day in North East Department, Ouanaminthe. Presidents Martelly of GOH and Danilo Medina of DR planted seeds to demonstrate their intent to reach a tree canopy of 27% by 2020. Currently, green coverage amounts to only 2% of Hispaniola Island. The GOH and DR want to increase it to 4% by 2017.

Martelly noted "the last national afforestation campaign dates back to 1980 . . ." He said in over three decades no attempt has been made to reforest Hispaniola. But he reported 400,000-plus seed plantings have occurred in several departments throughout Haiti in the last six weeks. Danilo Medina also reported 6 million-plus seed plantings have occurred in DR.

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On "World Environment Day", Presidents Martelly and Medina of Haiti and the Dominican Republic (DR) inaugurated "Re-greening DR-Haiti" reforestation initiative in the town of Ouanaminthe. They participated in planting seeds to pledge their commitment to reach a green cover of 27% by 2020. Presently, tree and vegetation cover is at an all-time low of two percent. The consequence is dire: without trees to absorb rain water, the earth erodes and minerals in the top-soil wash away.

Besides the planting ceremony, Martelly and Medina stopped by Center of Germplasm and Production of Fruit and Forest Species of Dosmond, a trilateral partnership between Haiti, DR, and Cuba. They also visited the Massacre River Protection Program, an initiative to prevent flooding of low-lands in Ouanaminthe.

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