Konbit Pou Ayiti

Haiti’s population is locked into a cycle of extreme poverty that grows out of – and contributes to – the rapid deterioration of its natural environment. Haiti is a place where one can witness major environmental disasters in the wake of a brief afternoon shower. Mountains are the country’s greatest geographical challenge, exacerbating a problem caused by over-population. Most Haitians are farmers skilled at planting on very steep hillsides, a practice they were forced to adopt decades ago when their numbers could no longer be supported in flatter areas. Cleared of trees, the 85% of the country that is mountainous quickly lost its most fertile soil to erosion. After it rains the panoramic mountainsides bear white scars in places where trees were dragged along — hauntingly reminiscent of human wounds deep enough for the bones to show.

Haiti’s peasants are hungrier than ever before. Unable to grow enough food to feed their families, many farmers have resorted to cutting down trees to make the commodity charcoal, the main source of fuel in the country. It is precisely because they are extremely poor that they are unable to protect their environment or improve their production. Low-technology advancements that can make trees more profitable, like grafting of mango varieties for export, are not available to them. Education is almost completely privatized and financially out of reach to most farming families, so they have no access to knowledge about better agricultural techniques or environmental conservation. In cruel irony, it is the very steps they take to stay alive today – such as cutting down trees to make charcoal – that lead to the destruction of their environment and their inability to produce the food they need to live tomorrow.

Political instability and violence also contribute to the increasing poverty of rural Haitians. The problems in Port-au-Prince, the capital, cut off transportation to key markets, raising the price on basic food items and causing population displacement. These factors affect the livelihoods of farmers across the country. However, over the last ten years people outside of major urban areas have experienced greater freedom to organize than during eras when power was consolidated in the hands of a dictatorship, such as the Duvaliers and the military junta of 1991-94. This experience has allowed peasants to organize into grass-roots groups such as farmers’ cooperatives, women’s groups, youth organizations, etc., all of which share one of two intertwined goals: alleviation of poverty and protection of the environment.