Opinion Response to Article "Haiti Deforestation Exacerbates Flooding" by Paisley Dodds and Amy Bracken

To the Editor Of Heritagekonpa Magazine:

The recent article “Haiti Deforestation Exacerbates Flooding” by Paisley Dodds and Amy Bracken, reminds us once again of the devastating human cost of deforestation. Deforestation is not just some abstract threat with long-term consequences; it is killing people today. As someone pointed out to me recently, this is an event on the magnitude of 9/11, but in a far smaller society, and one far less equipped to handle it. Yet we have learned to tune it out like a ringing bell or an alarm going off in the background. After all, the problem of deforestation seems almost intractable because of the grinding poverty that causes it.

The article reinforces this idea. An elderly Haitian peasant, Philis Milfort is quoted as saying, "We know we need trees, but we also need to eat and to cook." This demonstrates two very important points: 1) deforestation is not based on ignorance, it is based on desperation, and 2) unless you address the local economy you will make no headway curbing deforestation.

Later the article quotes a charcoal vendor who again demonstrates the vicious cycle: “‘this is the only way I can feed my four kids,’ said Vena Verone […] ‘I've heard about the floods and deforestation that caused them, but there's nothing I can do about that.’"

The article mentions importing propane and wood as possible solutions to deforestation and talks about the need for reforestation. Yet importing propane would do nothing for the thousands like Vena Verone, who make their living harvesting and selling firewood and charcoal, except to increase their misery. And reforestation without addressing the needs of these only invites more cutting.

Over fifteen years ago, Lester Brown of the Worldwatch Institute wisely observed that "successfully reforesting large areas of degraded lands will require much more than financial commitments . . . Only by garnering the knowledge, support and human energy of rural people themselves -- and planting to meet their basic needs -- is there any hope of success." (Brown, Lester, R. et al, State of the World, 1988, p. 84.)

Poverty and deforestation form a vicious cycle and need to be addressed simultaneously. The beauty is that when they are addressed together, their solutions become mutually reinforcing. Microcredit, or the practice of making small loans to the entrepreneurial poor, gives people like Vena Verone the opportunity to start small businesses and is a strong antidote to poverty. With a microcredit loan, Vena Verone can do something else to feed her four kids. At the same time it can be a strong motivator for reforestation. In Floresta’s program, the poor plant trees as a prerequisite for receiving loans, and by using loans to purchase land that they would otherwise have to rent, they are much more willing to invest in its long-term health. Over time trees provide fruit and wood, protect and restore water sources, and through techniques like agroforestry, improve crop yields. Thus, in the long term, reforestation not only protects communities from flooding but contributes to the wealth of those communities, creating the opposite of a vicious cycle.

That is the strategy that Floresta has used to empower poor Haitian and Dominican farmers - the very people who used to say “we know we need trees, but we also need to eat and cook,” - to plant almost two million trees and start hundreds of small businesses. Deforestation is not only a serious issue, but one that has a solution.

Sincerely,