When we think of Haiti, most of us still think of the recent earthquake and the efforts—some successful, some less so—to help the country recover. But Haiti has a much longer-standing problem, in some ways just as devastating, that is claiming lives and livelihoods and hindering economic progress: deforestation and all the problems that follow from it, like soil loss and landslides.
By some estimates, 98% of the country’s forests have been lost. The trees have been disappearing for centuries as land was cleared for plantations and later as the timber industry moved in. But today, as we’ve touched on before in Erosion Control, it’s individuals as much as corporations that are causing the damage: People clear land to plant subsistence crops or simply cut trees to use for fuel. Those without any other income make charcoal to sell in the cities. Charcoal represents as much as 80% of the country’s fuel supply.
As a Newsweek article on the country reports, in 2004 one city, Gonaïves, lost 2,000 people to mudslides following a single storm. The dangers of the barren hillsides are especially evident during hurricane season. Several companies and nonprofit organizations are now encouraging tree-planting and more sustainable means of making a living; the nonprofit group Trees for the Future, for example, is involved in planting trees near Gonaïves. It’s worth reading—if somewhat sobering—to get a vivid description of the worst effects of erosion, and the slow steps that are being made to repair the damage.