Environment

Timberland has made significant investments in reforestation in Haiti, which you can learn about in the documentary "Kombit: The Cooperative". Timberland's persistence and partnerships have resulted in five million trees (many of them fruit-bearing) being planted.   According to The Guardian, Timberland is also supporting a feasibility study to determine if Haiti could become a significant producer of organic cotton. Cotton production is not without its challenges and the jury is still out as to whether it is a crop that makes sense for Haiti. The full article follows below.  

Below is an article by Dean Nelson in the New York Times about a trip taken to some of Haiti's most beautiful and remote sites. Could these sites one day help promote tourism in Haiti? Perhaps with the right physical and human infrastructure to support it.  In any case, it is a reminder that there is a lot to see, much of it beautiful, outside of Port au Prince.

Below is a brief Caribbean Journal article concerning yesterday's joint launch by Haitian President Michel Martelly and Dominican President Danilo Medina of a reforestation project in NE Haiti.  The project is entitled "Regreening Haiti-DR" and is based on Dominican experience in forest recovery.  2013 has been designated "The Year of the Environment" in Haiti and, by expanding environmental partnerships, both countries stand to benefit.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) announced this week that it is providing seven million dollars to Chemonics for a three year project to promote the use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) and improve access to improved cook-stoves.  Haiti's dependence on wood-based fuels for cooking has negatively affected the environment, agriculture, and health.  If combined with economic development and national reforestation efforts, projects like this could help slow environmental degradation in Haiti.

Last week, Trenton Daniel wrote an article highlighting malnutrition and hunger in Haiti’s neglected rural areas.  Over the long term, the countryside needs agricultural modernization, better environmental management, and roads to move crops to regional markets.  Haiti first has to make it through hurricane season which began May 1st.  The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) anticipates an above normal hurricane season with a 70 percent chance of 12 to 18 named storms, including 6 to 10 hurricanes.  Storms put lives, crops, and infrastructure in Haiti at risk. 

When preparing to return to the US from my Peace Corps experience in Haiti, I was told don’t be surprised when someone asks you to describe this life changing experience, after 5 minutes don’t be surprised when they’re no longer listening.  This was some great advice and so now when people ask me, “What’s Haiti like?” I find myself inevitably doing two things; first launching into curt clichés, ‘poorest country in the western hemisphere’, ‘greatest nightmare on earth’, ‘surrealism has a country’, or whatever rant I’m on that day or week but regardless I find myself always adding "...but it’s still a Caribbean island."  To me that means there are still paradisiacal destinations to be found and indulge in here, but mostly for the adventurous.