Erosion Ravaging Haiti - 98.5% Of Original Forest Cover Gone - LA Times

[hatrack]

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"Misguided irrigation and drainage practices in Haiti's highlands, unregulated construction on hillsides and excessive cutting of endangered forests for fuel wood have combined to expose the area around Port-au-Prince to erosion that threatens to wipe out whole neighborhoods, rich and poor alike.

Damage from the heavy rain that falls almost nightly from June through November has been accelerating in recent years because every tree cut means less resistance to the water's flow. Every new home or business built in the hills above the capital scrapes away more grass and ground cover, leaving nothing to slow the runoff. Officials at the Environment Ministry blame corrupt local officials for failing to enforce laws against harvesting timber or building homes on publicly owned land.

'The problem is that the peasants don't have the means or the will to practice soil conservation,' horticulturist Dimitri Norris said. 'A peasant can live for a week from the proceeds of cutting one tree. He sees that as an immediate reward, whereas tending a fruit tree doesn't bring in that much income and requires a long-term commitment.' In a country with 70% unemployment, cutting trees and selling the wood to make charcoal is one of the few ways an indigent Haitian can make a living.

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The consequences, seen in the low-lying slums of Port-au-Prince, are stunning. Knee-high muck — mud, sewage, blown-off tin roofs, the occasional car — covers the roads through Carrefour and Cite Soleil each morning until jobless men and boys can be induced by drivers' gratuities to shovel it to the side. At a car dealership on a sea-level plain near the airport, a lake of muck last month rose as high as the door handles, forcing much of the inventory off the sales lot."

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