Haiti to plant trees to tackle poverty

Guardian News and Media/Port-au-Prince

Haiti aims to plant 50mn trees a year in a pioneering campaign to address one of the primary causes of the country’s poverty and ecological vulnerability.

President Michel Martelly will launch the drive to double forest cover by 2016 from 2% - one of the lowest rates in the world - after hundreds of years of degradation.

Haiti was once covered in verdant forests but land clearance for colonial plantations was followed by tree felling for cooking fuel. It is estimated that 30mn to 40mn trees a year are cut down.

Until now, efforts to address this problem have been sporadic, small-scale projects, mostly run by foreign non-governmental organisations. But the government has said it will spearhead the new initiative, which starts on May 1.

“In three years, this level of planting will give us forest cover of 4.5%; in 10 years, it will be 8% to 10% and in 50 years, we hope to be at the level of Cuba, a regional role model, and have 29%,” Jean Francois Thomas, the environment minister, said.

More tree cover is considered essential if Haiti, the poorest country in the western hemisphere, is to raise living standards.

“Deforestation and poverty are very closely linked in Haiti,” said Clementine Lalande, Haiti head of investments for Yunus Social Business, the initiative set up by the Nobel prize-winning economist Mohamed Yunus. “It has been clearly identified as one of the main causes of poverty here, leading to degraded soil, decreasing agricultural yields, water scarcity, decreasing farming income and potentially malnutrition.”

It also worsens the impact of natural disasters.

“Just one day of continuous rain can cause catastrophe,” said Thomas, referring to the frequent mudslides that roll down Haiti’s bare mountains, burying thousands, in the rainy season.

The global average of forest cover is 9%-12%, with countries such as Bhutan exceeding 60%. The Dominican Republic, Haiti’s neighbour, has lush forests but satellite photos show Haiti is all but bare.