Projects In Development:
Haiti Vert EspoirNEED: Haiti is an environmental disaster. Although less than 2% of its forests remain, cutting down trees for charcoal is a primary source of income for many poor families and accounts for 71% of the country’s total energy needs. Without trees, Haiti is vulnerable to droughts and floods like the one that devastated Gonaives in 2004. Even gentle rains carry precious topsoil to the sea, leaving agricultural lands increasingly barren and infertile in a country where the majority of households depend on small-scale agriculture to survive. Reforesting Haiti is one of the holy grails of sustainable development. Donor governments and NGOs have between them planted tens of millions of trees a year at various periods over the last 15 years. Despite the valuable contribution this represents and the important lessons learned, no one would qualify these collective efforts as anything more than a modest start—and certainly they have not changed the 2% forest cover statistic. RESPONSE: Translated literally as “green hope”, Vert Espoir is a new national association of NGOs that have come together to undertake a major campaign to plant trees in Haiti. Yéle Haiti has been a catalyst for this new venture and will take the lead in approaching bilateral funding institutions, UN agencies and private foundations to identify a pool of funds to be set aside for participating NGOs in Vert Espoir to apply for. Among the various NGO initiatives that will come under the Vert Espoir banner, Yéle Haiti will undertake the establishment of community-based tree nurseries as its contribution. The national campaign will rally the environmental community and identify new funding sources for them to draw on; Yéle Haiti’s direct project will be the establishment of 50 community-based tree nurseries throughout the country. Partners: Photo: Wyclef Jean (center) planting a tree with students in Gonaives in June, 2005. |
