Deforestation in Fon Puo Haiti

Journey north of Port-au-Prince and Haiti unfolds an ever-changing bouquet of landscapes along your way. You pass through ocean front property, bustling city centers, banana groves, and rice patties. As you curve your way along the western shoreline you pass salt plains, with their beautiful puddles of sea water quickly disappearing in the hot sun. From that point, there is no turning back. The further into the mountains you drive, the more arid and barren is the landscape that rises to meet you.

Far behind you are the still green mountains that — in their prime- would have formed the backdrop of a tropical paradise. Its not just a lack of vegetation, but there are far less people to be found in this harsh climate as well.

145 miles Northwest of Port-au-Prince you arrive in Fon Pou. Scattered along your journey are deposits of large, dirty, cylindrical bags full of charcoal. Over every crest is a new pillar of smoke and you eventually become numb to the scent of burning wood on the wind. Charcoal production is the way of life in these parts, but as you look around at what few trees remain, you wonder how long business can
last.

This is where you’ll find, Joanel Joseph. This is also the childhood home of MackLey Altema, founder of Soude Haiti. These men understand the crisis that faces their community. This is their soil — which is a very generous description of the dusty, rock hard ground you’ll find beneath your feet.

These men, as young as their thirties, remember a time, when plantains were bountiful, the rivers flowed fast and constant, and birds filled the day time with their songs. A time when children weren’t hungry.

“One day, it just stopped raining, and they became very dependent on the trees for Charcoal” Altema translates. “From there it progressed from bad to worse.” Only 2% of Haiti’s forest remains, and an estimated 30% of the remaining forest is destroyed every year. This causes soil erosion, more extreme flooding, and decreased rainfall. All of which exacerbate problems such as hunger and poverty.

The parents value the education opportunities for their children, but in Haiti, kids must go to the city for increased levels of learning. This places a large financial burden on their parents. Most children in the community receive assistance from relatives or organizations in America in order to afford their tuition and school supplies. Feeding those children and tending to their nutritional and health needs continues to be their parent’s responsibility. Once children leave for the city, they rarely return.

Fon Pau, and communities like it across Haiti, have a simple economic problem. Money leaves the community, but it never returns. In an area of Haiti where it hasn’t rained in 9 months or more, living off the land is not an option to ease the economic burden of sustaining a family’s basic needs, or to produce income.

Joanel Joseph explains through translation that it’s a cycle. “Because of the economic burden and lack of resources the only way to earn money to support the kids studying (and the rest of their family) is to cut down trees for charcoal. “ It is the only resource that remains in the area. Joseph is a trained agricultural technician. He says “we know how to develop the land, but we don’t have the resources. To have the resources they cut down the trees the way they know how. The cycle continues moving us backward instead of going forward.”It’s an all too common predicament, across Haiti families live simply for today. If today you cut down the tree and burn it into charcoal, than today your family eats. If today you don’t cut down the tree and burn it into charcoal, than maybe in 10 years the land can again sustain agriculture, but today your family starves.

Unlike many areas of Haiti that are saturated in aid, Fon Pau, and rural communities like it have little access. The drive to Fon Pau is slow and treacherous, and at times, impossible. Walking miles to the nearest clinic, or miles to get water, the people of Fou Pau are on their own. This makes the need to address deforestation in their area even greater.Lack of water is the single greatest problem faced by the community of Fon Pau. Across Haiti the entire country is suffering severe drought. When deforestation occurs, the natural process through which water is recycled from the soil into the atmosphere to return as rainfall is interrupted. “Suppressing precipitation,” according to researchers from the University of Leeds. In areas of Haiti, like Fon Pou, where charcoal production is still the primary source of income this environmental disaster is pushed to catastrophic levels.

In Fon Pou, however, there is hope. Joanel Joseph, has started a nursery in his yard. No one is coming to Fon Pou looking to help them,” Altema says. “ So Joanel started something so he can go out and find people to help.” In its early and fragile stage, the nursery has a mixture of papaya and mango trees. About 400 in total.

Eventually the goal is transplantation. If they have water, papaya trees can start producing fruit in 7–8 months. The mango trees take about 3–4 years. This alone would make a huge impact on the community. There’s a truck that comes by and will buy Mangos, generating income in addition to a food source. People are hungry, and their health suffers. Even a small influx of fruit producing trees in a community could be a catalyst to greater things.The problem of water still remains. Currently Joseph fetches water and carries it back to the nursery. It would be hard to imagine men could carry enough water on their heads to sustain a planting of full grown, fruit bearing trees. Joanel is just one man. The value of his project should not be underestimated, but it can only do so much good. Large-scale reforestation projects are needed.

Reforestation over time would alleviate a huge burden for the next generation of Haitians. Security in their ability to farm and produce from the land frees their mental capacity and resources to think to the future and innovate, ultimately equipping Haiti to self-actualization. ch8se partners with the Eden Projects which has already had great success in its reforestation efforts in Haiti. It’s a great long-term solution, but reforestation doesn’t address the needs of Haitians today. By partnering with the World Food Programme your purchase from ch8se not only ensures the future of Haiti, but supports the immediate needs of its people today. It’s a complete package, and it will make a difference.

Article written and photographed by Humanitarian Photojournalist Allison Mayer