Haiti - poverty drives people to cut too many trees
this testimony
Two Haitians from the North East of the country describe their experiences at a community climate change workshop:
¨When I was a child, the rain fell in regular periods, but now it rains at unexpected times of the year. In May we usually get a lot of rain here so we prepare the land before the end of April and wait for the rains in May so we can plant sweetcorn. Then the rains don’t come. This creates serious problems, especially for agriculture. Sometimes we can’t find pastures for our animals. Many young people are leaving the area to go to the cities close by such as Gonaives and Port-de-Paix or they go to the capital Port-au-Prince.¨
¨At the moment, the poverty drives people to cut too many trees. Not even the fruit trees are spared. Today we are experiencing conditions we´ve never seen in this region before. In the past, we were used to go swimming in the big pools of the La Gorge river, where we would catch shrimps. Nowadays, not only is the level of the water much lower, but that species of shrimp can’t be found here anymore.¨
During a focus group session in North West Haiti, a local resident talks about how climate change is affecting the local community:
Here in Anse-à-Foleur, we have a serious problem with flooding of our river: Bas de Sainte Anne. We used to get storms once every five to ten years but now they are a common occurrence. The frequent floods cause serious damage in the city of Anse-à-Foleur. When the river floods many human lifes are lost and agricultural production diminishes. We notice a reduction of the flow of sources of fresh water of the region. The river overflow affects our basic infrastructure. The rising sea level is still an important and urgent issue to be resolved. The waves affect the poorest in society, who build their homes within the reach of the waves.
background
Climate change presents a serious threat to the world having greatest impact on countries where the economic situation is fragile, such as Haiti. Poorer communities are the most vulnerable and those who need the most protection.
The devastating effects of extreme climatic phenomena exacerbate inequality between different sectors of society and impact directly on the ability of poor rural inhabitants to maintain their current mode of subsistence. Countries with limited resources do not have the capacity to protect people from extreme events, prevent disease and epidemics, address the needs of the victims and reconstruct the community infrastructure and economy in the long term.
Being on the trajectory of hurricanes, Haiti has always been at the mercy of large tropical depressions that have shaken the region. Haitians have guarded in their memory the most recent and the most devastating catastrophes, such as Hurricane Hazel in1954, Hurricane Gordon in 1994 and Hurricane Georges in 1998. The year 2004 was particularly difficult for Haiti, with Hurricane Jeanne causing incalculable damage and loss of human life (thousands of deaths in Gonaives, Mapou and Fond Verettes) followed by a long period of drought that led to a exceptionally desperate situation.
In the short term, such events lead to shortage of food, contamination of water, an increase in water borne diseases, ecosystem damage, destruction of property and infrastructure, loss of life and serious injury. The long term effects include loss of livelihoods and social and economic instability often leading to labour and skill migration as people leave their communities in search of better economic opportunities, leaving the most vulnerable behind.
Local communities in Haiti have been observing a staggering sea-level rise over recent years. This situation is often exacerbated by tropical downpours causing great material damage and loss of human life. Many houses have been destroyed rendering thousands of people homeless. Very recently, the city council of Anse-à-Foleur (North West Haiti) has been forced to relocate the public market due to the threat of sea level rise.
Nowadays, Haiti is experiencing a great increase in the number of tropical storms. The frequent floods, brought about by downpours that hit the different regions of the country, cause immeasurable damage. The appraisal in Fond Verettes after Hurricane Jeanne in May 2004, was gloomy: hundreds of houses swept away, plantations and farmland destroyed, and around 2000 fatalities. The floods in Mapou caused more than 1500 deaths in the South East of the country in May 2004 and flooding in in September of the same year caused more than 2000 deaths. In Saint Marc, l’Artibonite in September 2006 came yet more proof of the devastating effects of climate change when tropical storms resulted in extensive flooding. These disasters leave considerable psychological, physical and socio-economic scarring on the lives of local people.
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