ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN HAITI EXACERBATES

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 001325

SIPDIS

WHA/CAR
WHA/EPSC
OES/E
OES/ENV
OES/ETC
TREASURY FOR ALLEN RODRIGUEZ, GREGORY BERGER, WILLIAM
BALDRIDGE, LARRY MCDONALD

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EAGR EAID SENV HA
SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN HAITI EXACERBATES
POVERTY


1. SUMMARY: Poor land management in Haiti, caused by
poverty, has led to deforestation, land loss, and aquifer
depletion. All three exacerbate poverty in Haiti by
increasing the cost of food production and dependence on
more expensive imported food. Though the Government of
Haiti has long known about the link between environmental
destruction and poverty, they have been unable to make
progress protecting the environment. The current government
complains that they lack the information and capacity to
act. A new proposed law calls for the creation of a corps
of decentralized technical advisors. However, their ability
to make significant changes is doubtful; Haiti's dangerous
cycle of poverty and environmental destruction will be
difficult to break. END SUMMARY.

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Arable Land and Water Disappearing
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2. Haiti's arable land, aquifers, and surface water are
gradually being depleted by a cycle of poverty, land
mismanagement and tree felling. Impoverished Haitians have
all but denuded the mountains by cutting trees to make
charcoal. According to a USAID reforestation report, Haiti
is nearly 99 percent deforested. The loss of vegetative
cover has accelerated the erosion of mountain farmland and
carried sand into the valleys covering farmland. According
to Ministry of Agriculture advisor, Jean Arsene Constant, in
addition to flood-caused loss of farmland, water absorption
and retention in the mountains is insufficient to replenish
the aquifers or maintain year-round surface water in many
areas.

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Higher Cost of Living Exacerbates Poverty
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3. Constant also said that environmental degradation raises
the cost of living and makes Haitians poorer. Dwindling
arable land has caused Haitian farmers to move to less
productive land and use more fertilizer to increase their
productivity. Both have led to land loss through
salinization and increased erosion. Meanwhile, the scarcity
of surface water and the depletion of aquifers have caused
many farmers to dig deeper and deeper wells; much of the
arable land that remains is irrigated from deep expensive
wells that tap shrinking aquifers. As farmland and water
have disappeared, fertilizer use and well-derived irrigation
have increased. As a result, food production has dropped,
even though the price of local food has risen, pushing up
the cost of living and exacerbating poverty.

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Government Historically Ineffective
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4. Historically, the Haitian government has been aware of
the severity of Haiti's environmental problems and their
economic impact. However, they have consistently been
unable to make progress protecting the environment. The
most recent national environmental plan, published in 1999,
is out of date, lacks specific information about the
environment, lacks indicators that could be used to track
its effectiveness, and is administratively cumbersome. For
example, the plan outlines the linked problems of erosion
and deforestation, but does not provide any specifics or
detailed assessment of either. In addition, beyond creating
an administrative body, the plan proposes no means of
monitoring or evaluating its own progress. The plan has
never been implemented.

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Ministries Lack Information and Clearly Defined Roles
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5. According to the Minister of Environment, Yves-Andre
Wainright, institutional barriers impede progress on erosion
control and water management; the Ministries do not have the
capacity or information to make a plan for the environment;
and the roles of the ministries are ill defined. Ministry
of Agriculture advisors recently complained that they lack
sufficient knowledge about environmental problems to create
a new national plan. They said, for example, that though
they know salinization is a problem for many farmers in the
Artibonite Valley, in central Haiti, they know neither the
rate nor the extent of land loss due to salinization.
Further, they said that they do not have capacity to get the
information they need.


6. Wainright also said that the roles of the ministries
treating environmental problems have been poorly defined,
which has caused conflict among the ministries and stymied
action. The Ministries of the Environment and Agriculture
have both been charged with environmental protection.
However, in the past, the Ministries' disagreements over how
to proceed have often prevented them from taking action.

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New Framework: Towards Decentralization
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7. While there is currently no legislature to pass laws, a
framework law developed by the Ministries of Agriculture and
Environment in conjunction with NGOs and the private sector
was recently released for public comment. The draft law
seeks to remedy the lack of environmental information and
the poorly defined roles of the Ministries by decentralizing
the problem.


8. The law would create a group of 3000 technical advisors,
paid by the central government, but trained to work with
municipal governments on local environmental problems.
Minister of the Environment Wainright was optimistic that
these 'environmental police' could redress the lack of
centrally held information by working locally. He also
hoped that, because municipal governments would direct the
cadre of technical advisors, they would be immune to inter-
ministerial conflicts.


9. COMMENT: Increased cooperation between the historically
at-odds Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of
Agriculture is heartening. However, the effectiveness of
the framework law, which cannot be enacted until a new
national government is elected, is questionable. It does
not address fundamental issues such as the need to define
clear Ministerial roles or build capacity for central
planning and coordination. In addition, it is not clear
where the IGOH would get the money or the trained
professionals to staff and pay for 3000 'environmental
police'. Many of Haiti's environmental problems are dire
and national in scope; it is unlikely that local advisors
alone will be able to break Haiti's cycle of poverty and
environmental destruction. END COMMENT.