CARBONIZATION OF DOMINICAN FORESTS BY HAITIANS AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SANTO DOMINGO 001307 SIPDIS NOFORN EPA WASHINGTON E.O. 12958: DECL: 2019/11/30 TAGS: SENV EAGR DR HA SUBJECT: CARBONIZATION OF DOMINICAN FORESTS BY HAITIANS AND DOMINICANS THREATENS CRITICAL NATIONAL PARK REF: SANTO DOMINGO 01018 CLASSIFIED BY: Alex Margulies, ECOPOL Counselor; REASON: 1.4(B),(D) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (U) EconOff recently traveled to the Sierra de Bahoruco National Park (SBNP) with a group of NGOs to assess the deforestation occurring in the heart of the most biologically diverse region of Hispaniola. Deforestation has devastated the Haitian side of the border for decades, and now threatens forests on the Dominican Republic (DR) side. Throughout the border region, "carboneros" (charcoal makers) cut trees and convert the wood into charcoal. While much of the charcoal is exported clandestinely to Haiti, where it is widely used for cooking fuel, there is also a significant Dominican market. Both Haitians and Dominicans are complicit in the felling of virgin forests for charcoal production, and deforestation is likely to continue apace in the absence of effective natural resources management, law enforcement, and border controls. END SUMMARY. -------------- - Visiting Sierra de Bahoruco - Day 1 -------------- - ¶2. (U) On 10/20 and 10/21, 2009 EconOff visited the SBNP to investigate media reports that deforestation was occurring at an increasingly rapid rate there. He was accompanied by staff from The Nature Conservancy, Hispaniola Ornithological Society (HOS), and a United States Forest Service (USFS) employee serving as the USAID Regional Environmental Officer. On 10/21 the team entered SBNP from the south, which is particularly accessible thanks to a former mining access road. Dozens of "social trails," i.e. dirt paths, diverge from the primary road and lead to squatters' homes. EconOff visited several of the homes, of which all had been recently damaged or destroyed by the Dominican military. ¶3. (U) The homesites were not temporary structures. Each had concrete building foundations, fruit and legume crops, domesticated animals, and/or outhouses. One Haitian family had already returned to the area and resumed living in a damaged house. The military's show of force evident in this easily-accessible section of the park was non-existent in the less-accessible, and more heavily 
deforested, sections of the park. -------------- -- Visiting Sierra de Bahoruco - Day 2 -------------- -- ¶4. (U) On 10/21 the team traveled through the park on a 4x4-only road that first skirts the Dominican-Haitian border and then winds through the heart of the SBNP -- ground-zero for deforestation. In contrast to Day 1, following social trails through this section of the park led to recent charcoal production sites rather than homesites. EconOff encountered no carboneros in the forest but their impact was unmistakable. Extremely large and difficult-to-fell trees were sometimes left standing, but all other trees had been converted to charcoal. Dozens of black circles marked the areas used for charcoal-making ovens. From the road, however, the deforestation was not obvious as the carboneros had left a visual buffer of trees to screen their illicit activities. -------------- -------------- Environmental Implications of Deforestation -------------- -------------- ¶5. (U) The Sierra de Bahoruco National Park is 1,100 square kilometers and is the centerpiece of the most biological diverse region of Hispaniola. The park includes 1,400 plant species, 150 animal species, and three watersheds. Twenty-eight of the 30 bird species native to Hispaniola are found in the park. It also provides a refuge for threatened or rare species, including ten plants, 14 birds, and two mammals. ¶6. (U) In the forests where charcoal is made, the impact of deforestation can be moderate to severe. In severe instances, the result is akin to modern clear-cutting, especially when the land is subsequently used for agriculture and/or grazing. Intentional and accidental fires often destroy the remaining ground-level vegetation leaving few plants to stabilize the rocky and often thin layer of mountain soil. Without soil stabilizers, erosion and pollution of the three watersheds is inevitable. Lack of soil also means little chance for forest regeneration. ¶7. (U) In instances of moderate deforestation, some hope for regeneration exists. In this scenario, the undergrowth remains relatively intact to stabilize the soil and some seed-trees are left to propagate future generations. The USFS employee told EconOff that under these conditions it will take approximately 25-30 years for the forest to recover. He also noted that approximately 60 percent of the broadleaf forest in the northwestern section of SBNP, near the Haitian border, has been deforested. High-elevation conifer trees have been damaged by fire that escaped from charcoal ovens. -------------- -------------- -------------- Demand: Is the Charcoal Going to Haiti... -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U) Government officials, including Environment Minister Jaime David, have acknowledged that illegal charcoal traffickers constitute powerful business interests, with political influence, and that their activities could only be carried out with the complicity of officials in the Armed Forces, police and Park Ranger service. EconOff observed one guard station located three hundred yards from a major trafficking route. There, EconOff spoke with two park guards,who insisted they never took bribes from charcoal makers to look the other way (Comment: Numerous media accounts report that park guards charge carboneros a fee of 3,000-5000 pesos (USD $83-$138) every two to three weeks to access the park's forest. END COMMENT). The rangers then complained that additional manpower and resources are necessary to safely patrol the park, noting that their shotguns do not work properly and that a third guard is needed for them to patrol in pairs. ¶9. (U) The conclusions of a two-month charcoal commercialization study under the Transborder Environmental Program (PMT),funded by the Dominican Ministry of Environment, provides the most detailed analysis to-date. The report says 86 percent of Haitian charcoal comes from the DR. The charcoal comes primarily from 200 Haitian carboneros, assisted by 12 Dominican truck drivers, with an average monthly production of 37,000 sacks of charcoal. The approximate market value of the charcoal is USD 2.5 million annually. Over 5,200 hectares (12,850 acres) of forest are necessary to produce the 27,300 metric tons of charcoal produced annually. -------------- -------------- -------------- ...or is it Marketed in the Dominican Republic? -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶10. (C) Defense AttachC) (DATT) sources provided information that contradicts the PMT information. DATT sources in the Dominican Armed Forces estimate that 80 percent of the charcoal produced near the border is actually consumed domestically. Seizures by the Armed Forces revealed that the charcoal traffic is frequently bound for the interior of the DR rather than the border and/or Haiti. The DATT sources reported that military enforcement is subject to political influences, as the military regularly releases seized contraband in response to requests from legislators and government officials. On 11/2, authorities destroyed a large charcoal furnace located on the property of a former provincial governor, Ernesto Castellano, a member of the opposition Dominican Revolutionary Party (PRD). -------------- -------------- -------------- Supply Side: The Political Implications of Deforestation -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶11. (U) The Government of the Dominican Republic (GoDR) recognizes the gravity of the problem - Environment Minister Jaime David reported that over the past twenty years the DR has lost nearly one-third of its border-region forests - and has been taking some steps to address it. Over the past year SEMARENA, the Dominican Secretariat for Natural Resources and the Environment, has funded a reforestation program along the border, that benefits both Dominican and Haitian laborers. Additionally, the Dominican and Haitian Environmental Ministers have signed agreements that permit reforestation to occur on both sides of the frontier. Sixty-six Haitians were recently arrested for making charcoal in Los Haitises, another national park far from the border, highlighting the need for nationwide forest protection. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶12. (U) Deforestation will inevitably creep farther into the DR unless a series of changes occur. If deforestation is to be halted, either demand for charcoal must drastically decrease, or the GoDR must implement effective border controls, take law enforcement action against illegal loggers and charcoal suppliers, and resist political influences that protect the illicit charcoal industry. END COMMENT Lambert