FMNR in the Caribbean: Workshop in Haiti and Conference in Dominican Republic
October 13, 2013
Haiti has easily received over $100,000,000 in reforestation investments. Why is there so little to show for this? What would it take to incite a re-greening movement? Can WV Haiti and partners be catalysts to reverse the trends of decades leaving Haiti with one of the highest deforestation rates in the world? Even so, there are pockets of success. What can we learn from them to apply on a wider scale?
Tony Rinaudo is currently travelling to Haiti where he will conduct an FMNR workshop (23-28 October). He will then present Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration at the Echo Community Conference 2013 (29-31 October) in Dominican Republic.
As we wait to read Tony’s account on our blog we try to learn more about the local situation…
Deforestation in Haiti
(from Wikipedia)
In addition to soil erosion, deforestation has caused periodic flooding, as seen on 17 September 2004. Earlier that year in May, floods had killed over 3,000 people on Haiti’s southern border with the Dominican Republic.
There has been little marine, coastal, and river basin management. Forest cover in the steep hills surrounding Haiti’s river basin retains soil, which in turn retains water from rainfall, reducing river flood peaks and conserving flows in the dry season. But deforestation has resulted in much of the soil being released from the upper catchments. Many of Haiti’s rivers are now highly unstable, changing rapidly from destructive flooding to inadequate flows.