MaximsNewsNetwork: 29 July 2009 - UN MINUSTAH: Haiti's environmental problems are reaching a breaking point. But some Haitians, like Jane Wynne, are taking matters into their own hands, and are doing all that they can to save the country's few remaining trees.
Haitis environmental problems are reaching a breaking point. Massive deforestation along the countrys hillsides has turned this tropical paradise into a wasteland of desert and scrub. The dry parched soil grows fewer and fewer crops, and flooding claims hundreds of lives every year.
But this secret garden outside the capital still flourishes its exotic flora and fauna are nearly all that remains of Haitis lush past.
Thanks to Jane Wynne. Shes dedicated her life to protecting the countrys dwindling forests.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Wynne, Environmentalist, Wynne Farm:
Weve been working for years on top of this mountain - my dad started terracing this corner of Haiti, its about 30 acres of land - to leave it as an example of how to work the land on hillsides.
Wynnes father adapted the terracing practices of the Incas in Peru to the steep hillsides of Wynne Farm. However, local farmers have been slow to adapt to the innovation, causing widespread erosion. With fewer crops and an exploding population, desperate farmers clear away trees in search of new farmland.
Peasants encroach on Wynne Farm, to steal its valuable trees for charcoal fuel. Gas is too expensive and electricity is scarce. Environmentalist Fidel Adja says this forces millions of people to cut trees to survive.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Fidel Adja, Surveyor, Wynne Farm:
People cant just go hungry. They need fuel to cook food with. So they cut down a tree. They make a little charcoal, and sell it to buy food.
The Haitian government is only just beginning to manage the problem, by creating local forest rangers like Orisme Saint Bonheur.
SOUNDBITE (Creole) Orisme Saint Bonheur, Forest Agent:
The first time we find someone who is cutting trees, we try to explain to them why they shouldnt do it. The second time, we arrest them and bring them to police.
But Wynne says the sanctions are not enough. Wynne Farm is using education to discourage people from tree cutting. This group from Port-au-Prince is learning why deforested hillsides cause flooding in the cities.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Wynne, Environmentalist, Wynne Farm:
We have this place; its like a center in education on the environment. Our house, our farm, is open to everyone.
Wynnes strategy is to teach people cheap, practical alternatives to charcoal energy. Here the group is learning how to make burnable briquettes out of recycled paper.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Wynne, Environmentalist, Wynne Farm:
They come and they say, talk to us about ecology, because we hear about protecting the biosphere on the radio, protecting the environment. Tell the students, tell the adults. What does that mean protecting the environment?
For most, this is the only environmental education theyve ever received. Wynne Farm educates a few thousand people per year a drop in the bucket, but things are beginning to change.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jane Wynne, Environmentalist, Wynne Farm:
Its been a long fight. It is still a fight today. Its only now we can say that people are starting to understand what weve been doing for years, only now, and Im very happy.
The real challenge for Haiti will be strengthening state control on forests, and finding alternative sources of energy for the countrys eight million people.
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This stupid sub human niggers burnt and destroyed their entire forestry to burn their own feces and other nigger flesh and now they resort to eating "dirt cookies" lol im finding this "equality' business harder and harder to believe
JoanBeatrington001 9 months ago
Thanks for the wonderful story and great pictures. We would love to learn more about you!
2c4u22 2 years ago