Haiti Environmental Vulnerability Report-USAID 2007.pdf

April 2007

This publication was produced for review by the United States Agency for International Development. It was prepared by Chemonics International Inc. and the U.S. Forest Service.

ENVIRONMENTAL

VULNERABILITY IN HAITI

FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

ENVIRONMENTAL

VULNERABILITY IN HAITI

FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Prepared by:

Glenn R. Smucker, Editor and Team Leader Mike Bannister, Heather D’Agnes, Yves Gossin, Marc Portnoff, Joel Timyan Scot Tobias, Ronald Toussaint

CONTENTS

Preface.................................................................................................................................. i Executive Summary ............................................................................................................ ii I. Introduction II. Population, Health, and the Environment

Haiti’s Demographic Profile Factors Influencing Population Growth

Lack of access to family planning Impacts of Poverty on Access to Family Planning Current USAID Efforts in Access to Family Planning

Health Services, Poverty, and Vulnerability Environmental Health Services Population Trends, Poverty, and Vulnerability

Household Cooking Fuel and Indoor Air Pollution Recommendations for Action

E.1. Macro Level Recommendations E.2. Other Recommendations References

III. Interventions in Watersheds Background Natural Resource Project Models

Landscape Engineering Civic Infrastructure and Job Creation Plot-based Models Watershed-based Strategies Market-Driven Models Cross-Border Model New Mutual Interest Coalitions Participatory Local Community Development Mixed Models and the Convergence of Ideas Lessons Learned

Soil Conservation and Agroforestry Technologies Linear Structures with Plant Material Linear Structures Made with Rock or Soil Ravine Control Structures Planting Timber Trees Fruit Trees

Lessons Learned: NRM Project Success Case Studies

Value added and Landscape Change in Fond-des-Blancs Landscape and Agricultural Change in Les Perches Site Transformation in Ti Lacombe

Tree Products and Trade Recommendations ii

Strategic Elements

2. Technologies Appendix A: Discussant Response: Gael Pressoir Appendix B: Contacts for Field Interviews

IV. Watershed Vulnerability and Prioritization Overview of Haitian Watersheds Environment, Vulnerability and Watershed Management Targeting Critical Watersheds A Watershed Vulnerability Analysis

Soil Erosion Risk Index Soil Potential Index The Factor of Biodiversity Population Vulnerability Infrastructure Vulnerability Indices Overlapping Risks and Watershed Priorities

Governance and Disaster Mitigation Disaster Preparedness Investments in Early Warning Systems Municipal Land Use Planning Capacity Building among Parks Managers Co-management Activities

Recommendations for Mitigating Flood Risk & Soil Erosion High Priority Watersheds Sector-Based Watershed Interventions Institutional and Policy Recommendations

Appendix C: GIS Analysis of Watershed Vulnerability V. Prospects for Solid and Liquid Biofuels in Haiti

Solid Biofuels Liquid Biofuels

Clean and Alternative Fuel Markets Biofuel Background Biofuels in the Caribbean Ethanol in Haiti Haiti Petroleum Energy Sector Biofuel Selection Prospective Markets Training and Access to Improved Cultivars Liquid Biofuel Policy Options

Recommendations Solid Biofuels Liquid Biofuels Appendix D: Soap Production from Jatropha Oil Appendix E: Jatropha Seed Production Calculations Appendix F: Jatropha Seed Cake as a Fuel Substitute

VI. Towards a Strategy for Mitigating Natural Disaster in Haiti’s Watersheds

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS i

PREFACE

The assessment team for this report is deeply appreciative of the time and enthusiasm shown by all those interviewed in the field, the stimulating questions and comments by workshop participants in Petion-Ville and Washington, and the special support provided by Julie Kunen, USAID/Washington, Dana Roth, US Forest Service, and Lionel Poitevien and Ben Swartley of the USAID/Haiti Mission.

This report will be available in both English and French. The cover photograph of the Roseaux watershed in Grand’Anse was taken by Joel Timyan. Authors can be contacted as follows:

Glenn R. Smucker, Cultural Anthropologist Smucker Consulting, grsmucker@aol.com

Michael Bannister, Forester, Agroforester Center for Subtropical Forestry, University of Florida, Mikebann@ufl.edu

Heather D’Agnes, Population-Environment Technical Advisor USAID/Washington, GH/PRH/PEC, hdagnes@usaid.gov

Yves Gossin, Agronomist, Lawyer Consultant, Haiti, yvesgossin@yahoo.fr

Marc Portnoff, Engineer Center for Advanced Fuel Technology, Carnegie-Mellon University, mp1a@andrew.cmu.edu

Joseph Ronald Toussaint, Agronomist, Biodiversity Specialist Consultant, Haiti, josephronaldt@yahoo.fr

Joel Timyan, Forester Ecologist, Oak Hill, Florida

(386) 345-0048, jctimyan@yahoo.com

Scot Tobias, Environmental Health Specialist Associates in Rural Development, Inc., Stobias@ardinc.com ii ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This report was prepared in response to a Congressional directive that, “after consultation with appropriate international development organizations and Haitian officials, organizations and communities, the Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development shall submit a report to the Committees on Appropriations setting forth a plan for the reforestation of areas in Haiti that are vulnerable to erosion which pose significant danger to human health and safety.” This launched an iterative process that has encompassed analyses and consultations, and follow-up recommendations.

BACKGROUND

For this report, which contributes to furthering the response to this mandate, USAID contracted a multi-disciplinary team of experts to assess environmental vulnerability in Haiti. The assessment team has interpreted its scope broadly to include not only vulnerability to erosion but also an array of land use practices and related concerns, such as better management of critical watersheds, improved rural livelihoods, sustainable forest management, and reduction in the vulnerability of the Haitian populace to natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes.

METHODS

The team was composed of nine international and Haitian specialists with advanced degrees in cultural anthropology, natural resource management, agronomy, GIS analysis, public health, and biofuel technologies. Five team members are well known Haiti specialists with extensive field experience in research and program implementation. To carry out its study, the team consulted widely with the government, the private sector, major international donors, and grassroots organizations. In May 2006, the team carried out two weeks of fieldwork in Haiti. The team presented its preliminary findings for feedback and discussion at workshops in Haiti (July 2006) and Washington (August 2006). An earlier study, which reviewed Haiti’s public sector capacity for natural resource management and disaster preparedness, and current activities of other major environmental donors in Haiti, laid the ground for the present report.

TRENDS

Natural Disasters

Haiti has long been vulnerable to tropical storms and hurricanes; however, in recent years, the country has been afflicted by a significant increase in severe natural disasters.

The country lies on the primary pathway of tropical storms that originate in the Atlantic and strike Caribbean islands every hurricane season. Despite the destructive power of gale force winds, loss of human life from tropical storms in Haiti is due primarily to severe flash floods in eroded watersheds that wash down on poor riverine and coastal floodplain communities. Haiti’s disastrous floods of 2004 in Gonaïves and other areas serve as a warning of major threats to densely populated districts of Port-au-Prince and other major coastal cities.

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS iii

Population Haiti has a youthful and rapidly growing population which is increasingly clustered in urban areas. Based on the census of 2003, Haiti's current population is estimated at 8.4 million people. The annual population growth rate is 2.5 percent per year and women average 4.9 children. At present rates, the Haitian population will grow to 10 million by 2010, an increase of 19 percent in just four years. Haiti’s mountainous agricultural base has long surpassed its carrying capacity and cannot support this rate of population growth.

Rapid Urbanization

Like other countries in the region, Haiti is experiencing rapid urban growth, but not urban job creation. On the contrary, since the early 1980s, the Haitian economy has been marked by a long-term pattern of negative growth and increased poverty. As in sub- Saharan Africa, Haiti is experiencing "premature urbanization” — the agricultural sector is not productive and urban areas are not generating economic growth. Despite these economic conditions, Haiti’s overall rate of urban population growth is 3.63 percent compared to 0.92 percent in rural areas. Port-au-Prince alone is growing by 5 percent annually, and 40 percent of Haiti's population lives in urban settlements, including shantytowns in coastal flood plains such as Cité Soleil in Port-au-Prince, Raboteau in Gonaïves, and La Faucette in Cap-Haïtien. The Port-au-Prince metropolitan area now comprises one-fourth of Haiti’s entire population. Given the sheer scale of settlement in coastal flood plains, predicted deaths due to catastrophic flooding in Port-au-Prince would far surpass all other disasters in Haiti’s meteorological record.

The high rate of population growth and rapid urban expansion do not allow aquifers and floodplains to function as natural storage and filters particularly during flood conditions.

Due to unplanned urbanization, hard surfaces caused by anarchic construction methods prevent the infiltration of surface water required to recharge the country’s most important aquifers, located in the major plains of Cul-de-Sac, Gonaïves, Léogane, Les Cayes and Cap-Haïtien.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Root Causes of Environmental Disaster

The assessment team has concluded that the root causes of environmental disaster in Haiti are acute poverty, rapid population growth and unplanned urbanization. In the short term, it remains critical to convert hillsides to tree-based perennial agriculture; however, the team’s most important recommendations are for long-term actions that fall outside the realm of traditional soil conservation and reforestation efforts.

First, prospects for reduced vulnerability to natural disaster in Haiti are very limited in the absence of broad based economic development. In the long run, it is imperative to generate a large number of permanent long-term jobs and viable alternatives to farming the country’s hillsides. This objective could be facilitated, for example, by US legislation iv ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS favoring trade policy to support the assembly industry in Haiti and also the export of high value fruit crops1.

Second, an environmental management plan geared to mitigate environmental vulnerability must integrate demographic parameters and take steps to alleviate population pressure by providing access to voluntary family planning information and services. This argues for a national effort (building off current mission and donor efforts) to integrate voluntary family planning service provision with the protection of vulnerable watersheds, economic growth activities, and mitigation efforts in urban flood plain communities.

Hillside Agriculture

The present assessment shows clearly that the future of Haiti does not reside with intensively-managed hillside agriculture. The country’s steeply sloped agricultural plots require substantial investments to keep soil, water and agricultural inputs in place.

Hillside farmers have long farmed Haiti’s slopes; however, these slopes were never suited to annual agriculture and most farmers cannot afford the cost of installing and maintaining appropriate agricultural practices. There is also no evidence that either the Haitian state or donors can afford the high investments required to make hillside agriculture productive on a sustainable basis. Therefore, despite our best efforts, most Haitian landscapes will never consist of an ideal of hillside farms meeting high standards of soil and water conservation, mixing perennial and annual crops, benefiting from profitable marketing strategies, attaining adequate rural incomes, and providing equitably for upstream and downstream users alike. There will undoubtedly be sites where something close to this ideal model can be achieved, but these will be islands in the overall landscape.

Rather, the primary “natural” resource to be managed in Haiti is the intellectual power and work ethic of the Haitian people. Dysfunctional economic and political structures have prevented Haitians from exploiting their individual capacities. In the long run, Haiti must develop non-agricultural economic motors in secondary cities throughout the country, with improved education feeding employees into those businesses. Instead of succeeding though natural resource management projects, it is more likely that improved watershed management will eventually be achieved when the rural population leaves mountainous regions and finds alternate employment in lowland areas, coastal cities and beyond — the Puerto Rican model. Unless the current hillside population density decreases significantly, reforestation in the sense of reestablishing the previously-existing forest will never be possible.

Watershed Interventions

In the near term, landscape restoration is urgently needed in selected watersheds. This will buy time for longer-term efforts to boost broader economic growth, family planning, improved education, and good governance in secondary cities. Up to now, there has been no precedent in Haiti for successful interventions at the level of whole watersheds;

1 This legislation has now been adopted.

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS v success has been achieved at localized or pilot scales. Nevertheless, to effectively reduce vulnerability, interventions must engage a critical mass of farmers and affect the preponderance of slopes within watersheds. The challenge, therefore, is to scale up interventions in scattered plots and isolated ravines, and promote alternatives to erosion-intensive agriculture on Haiti’s slopes. This includes increasing the proportion of the landscape devoted to perennial crops rather than erosion-intensive annual food crops, off-farm employment generation including transformation of local agricultural products, and generally shifting agricultural pressures away from slopes onto more intensively cultivated lowlands and other sites less vulnerable to erosion.

Valuable lessons have been learned from the successes and failures of previous projects in Haiti, especially in the areas of tree culture and marketing of agroforestry products.

When properly targeted and implemented, project interventions on slopes can speed landscape restoration, restore the functions of ecosystems, mitigate poverty, and slow the anarchic population growth of Haiti’s cities. Using a participatory methodology, watershed management plans should be prepared for whole watersheds and should include identification of assets as well as high risk sites within watersheds. This process should include the direct participation of local farmers and other watershed stakeholders including local government.

Conversion of hillsides to tree-based perennial agriculture should be undertaken in a context of national planning that takes food security into account as well as the capacity for urban centers and lowland agricultural zones to absorb significant increases in population. If grain and pulse production were to decline due to the widespread conversion of slopes to tree crops, Haiti would become even more dependent on food imports.

Therefore, complementary improvements in flatland agriculture are needed as well.

Watershed Vulnerability and Prioritization

There is little chance of reducing vulnerability to natural disaster unless the interventions encompass whole catchment areas and incorporate ridge-to-reef planning. To be effective, interventions must be part of an integrated approach, directly linking natural resource management with other pertinent sectors such as early warning, urban planning, reproductive health, and job creation programs. To be sustainable, watershed interventions must be rooted in participatory approaches with local levels of government, grassroots organizations, and resource user groups.

Given the overwhelming challenges, it is imperative to establish priorities and make choices based on reliable data and careful analysis of risk and opportunity Prior to the present study, Haiti’s watersheds had never been compared and ranked quantitatively in terms of their vulnerability to loss of human life, productive infrastructure, soil potential, or erosion risk. Therefore, the assessment team used geographic information systems (GIS) analysis and hazard mapping to develop an unprecedented new tool for (i) ranking the relative vulnerability of Haiti’s watersheds and (ii) establishing priorities to mitigate risks of natural disaster and promote economic growth (please see map below that identifies priority watersheds). The team’s vulnerability analysis of Haiti’s 54 major watersheds identified four thematic clusters of high priority watersheds:

vi ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

• Port-au-Prince. There is virtually no chance of diminishing Haiti’s vulnerability to severe flooding without mitigation efforts that target densely populated urban neighborhoods. The Port-au-Prince metropolitan area has far and away the highest potential for loss of life and infrastructure if a disastrous flood occurs. This is due to the sheer density of people living in the metro region, many in floodplains. Therefore, a task force is urgently required to create flood maps of high risk zones of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area. A programmatic response should be firmly rooted in partnerships with neighborhood groups. The sheer scale of investment and organizational effort required to alleviate flood risk in the Cul-de-Sac watershed that encompasses Port-au-Prince will undoubtedly require a multi-donor strategy rather than reliance on a single donor.

• Secondary Cities (Les Cayes, Trou du Nord and Jassa, La Quinte-Gonaïves, and Cap- Haïtien). This cluster links high risk to population and infrastructure with high production potential. Therefore, program interventions in secondary cities and their rural uplands should emphasize economic development along with natural resource protection and disaster preparedness. The Inter-American Development Bank and USAID job creation programs are already active in Les Cayes, Gonaïves, and Cap- Haïtien.

• High Mountains and Protected Areas (Grand’Anse, Rivière Jacmel, and Fonds Verrettes). The highland forests of these watersheds exercise a critical hydrological

HAITI

COMPOSITE MAP OF PRIORITY

WATERSHEDS BASED ON MEDIAN

VALUE OF 5 INDICES

• Cap-Haitien

• Les Cayes

• Gonaïve

• Trou du Nord

Grand’Anse

• Jacmel

Léogane.

• Limbé

• Aquin

• Verrettes

• Port Salut

• Tiburon •• La La VisiteVisite National ParkNational Park •• PicPic MacayaMacaya National Park National Park

•• Pine Forest Reserve Pine Forest Reserve

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS vii function as headwaters of more than a dozen rivers and have global significance for biodiversity. According to recent reports, the Grand’Anse region has become the country’s principal source for the unsustainable harvest of wood charcoal. Therefore, this cluster links very high erosion risk with the region’s high frequency of hurricanes and the opportunity to conserve Haiti’s most significant protected areas, Macaya and La Visite National Parks and the Pine Forest Reserve. Watersheds in this cluster would benefit from the development of a national heritage strategy together with the Haitian government and international NGOs, including co-management with local user groups and the promotion of ecotourism.

• Manageable Size, Donor Absence and Vulnerability (Trou du Nord, Momance- Léogane, Limbé, Tiburon/Port-Salut, Aquin/St. Louis du Sud). This cluster overlays manageable size with the absence of other donors whose efforts have instead targeted the lower Artibonite and some of the larger secondary cities. Watersheds in cluster 4 are conducive to ridge-to-reef management plans encompassing both urban and rural sectors, and the income-generating capacity of local producer groups.

In sum, the USAID/Haiti Mission cannot directly intervene in all 54 major watersheds of Haiti. Therefore, it should devise a near term strategy for interventions in high priority watersheds. In general, prioritization should target high risk sites and link early warning systems with watershed interventions, including best management of natural buffering systems such as highland forests, the estuaries of mangroves, and coastal wetlands.

Prospects for Biofuels in Haiti

Charcoal and fuelwood currently provide 75 percent of Haiti’s energy consumption.

Given the importance of these products, the assessment team was asked to make recommendations regarding improved biofuels and biofuels management as an element of watershed management. The team recommends expansion of bio-energy crops including wood and oil bearing plants in response to viable markets, and incorporation of such crops on slopes and in soil conservation structures where feasible.

Future efforts should promote sustainable planting and harvesting of trees for charcoal and other wood products. Measures to increase the supply of fuelwood should include farm-site tree planting, more efficient carbonization, and massive diffusion of more efficient cookstoves, including more efficient charcoal stoves. To support these efforts, it is also important to advocate for a national strategy on sustainable charcoal production.

Production of oil bearing crops in drier agricultural zones may be used to reduce soil erosion and improve watershed management; however, at the present time these crops and their markets are not well established. Therefore, the Mission should closely monitor liquid biofuel opportunities and work with local stakeholders to define an action plan for pilot efforts in this sector.

viii ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSION

A USAID strategy for intervening in high priority watersheds should be just one element of a long-term multi-sector strategy for major investments in economic development and off-farm employment in secondary cities, small towns, and flatlands. In order to have a discernible impact, there should be a significantly heightened level of inter-donor collaboration at policy levels as well as the targeting of field interventions. Also, Mission programming should make use of other US government resources in addition to USAID expertise in urban planning, environmental management, coastal and marine resources, and disaster preparedness.

For such an approach to be effective, the US government should make a long-term commitment to poverty alleviation and to interventions in critical watersheds. An effective strategy will require seamless continuity of funding at major funding levels going well beyond scattered projects and intermittent three to five year project cycles.

This will require a major commitment on the part of the US government, as well as an enabling political environment in Haiti.

I. INTRODUCTION

This report presents findings and recommendations of a USAID-funded policy study undertaken to define program interventions to reduce Haiti’s vulnerability to natural disaster and to improve management of watersheds and erosion-prone hillsides.

Hurricanes and tropical storms have long been the primary causes of natural disasters in the Caribbean. In the spring rains of May 2004, more than 2,000 people died due to tropical storms and severe flooding in the Haitian mountain towns of Fonds-Verettes and Mapou, and the neighboring town of Jimani in the Dominican Republic. A few months later in September 2004, flooding related to the passage of Tropical Storm Jean killed more than 3,000 Haitians in Gonaïves and Port-de-Paix.2

This policy study was undertaken in response to a Congressional directive. In the 2005 Appropriations Bill, Congress directed that USAID develop “a plan for the reforestation of areas in Haiti that are vulnerable to erosion which pose significant danger to human health and safety.” USAID has interpreted this mandate broadly to include better management of critical watersheds, improved rural livelihoods, sustainable forest management, and reduction in the vulnerability of Haiti’s populace to natural disasters such as floods and hurricanes.

In order to identify the most effective interventions in these sectors, USAID conducted an initial assessment of current and past watershed management activities in July 2005.3 This assessment identified environmental stabilization activities that have improved the condition of vulnerable hillsides and rural livelihoods. The key to these successes was the use of market-based incentives that connect soil and water conservation measures to improvements in farmer incomes.

Subsequently, between November 2005 and September 2006, USAID commissioned a somewhat broader overview of environmental vulnerability including (i) a background analysis of environmental risks and opportunities in Haiti, 4 and (ii) the present report of findings and recommendations for alleviating Haiti’s environmental vulnerability. The background analysis reviewed Haiti’s environmental policy and legal framework, and public sector capacity for natural resource management and disaster preparedness. It also reviewed current activities of other major environmental donors in Haiti including The World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, the European Union, and the Canadian International Development Agency. Background analysis took special note of the Interim Cooperation Framework (July 2004) established by donors and the Interim Government of Haiti (2004-2006) in the months following the fall of Aristide (February 29, 2004).

The assessment team conducted its background analysis prior to the February 2006 election of President René Préval and the establishment of a new government in May 2006. The 2004 Interim Cooperation Framework established by donors with Haiti’s

2 See Potter et al., (2004) and OCHA Situation Report (2006).

3 Agriculture in a Fragile Environment: Market Incentives for Natural Resource Management in Haiti (July 2005), Glenn Smucker, editor, and Gardy Fleurantin, Mike McGahuey, and Ben Swartley, USAID/Haiti Mission.

4 Environmental Risks and Opportunities in Haiti: A Background Analysis (October 2006), Glenn Smucker, editor, Marc-Antoine Noel, and Jean-André Victor.

2 ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

Interim Government was scheduled to end in September 2006. After the election of Préval, a new donor conference was held in July 2006. At that point donors attending the International Conference for the Economic and Social Development of Haiti pledged an additional $750 million of assistance to Haiti, and the Interim Cooperation Framework was extended to September 2007. Consequently, the assessment team updated its background analysis to take into account the evolving political and policy environment, including the newly elected government of René Préval and the new donor conference.

The present report is based on an overview of critical sectors that have an impact on Haiti’s vulnerability to disaster, including watershed management, disaster preparedness, sustainable forest and parks management, urban planning, population and health linkages, institution-building and policy reform, the use of biomass for energy, and markets for agroforestry products. The report’s findings and recommendations are designed to inform USAID efforts to develop a watershed strategy and define interventions that are (a) likely to be effective, (b) able to produce impact at a broad scale, and (c) within the Agency’s manageable interest.

To carry out its study, the assessment team consulted widely with a broad range of stakeholders inside and outside of government including grassroots organizations. As a culminating phase of this consultation process, the team presented its principal findings and recommendations at two stakeholder workshops, one in Port-au-Prince (July 20, 2006) and the other in Washington (August 2, 2006). Workshop presentations included opportunity for questions and discussion of the issues raised by workshop presentations.

The workshops also served as a forum to test the team’s findings in response to stakeholder concerns and feedback. These concerns have been taken into account in the chapters that follow. Some workshop discussants and presenters contributed to workshop presentations but are not listed here as authors.5

Stakeholders participating in the two workshops included the US government and other donors including CIDA, The World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank, Haitian government representatives including the Ministers of Agriculture and Environment and representatives of other Haitian government agencies and ministries (Ministry of Interior, Directorate of Civil Protection, Bureau of Mines and Energy), Haitian and international non-governmental organizations, representatives of the Haitian business sector, women’s groups, peasant organizations, and ordinary citizens.

The following chapters track the panels and themes presented in the two recent workshops. This includes an overview of population, health and the environment in Haiti (Heather D’Agnes and Scot Tobias), practical approaches for intervening in watersheds based on lessons learned from earlier efforts along with new developments of special interest (Mike Bannister and Yves Gossin), and priorities for public policy and for ranking the relative vulnerability of critical watersheds (Joel Timyan and Ronald

5 Gael Pressoir, plant geneticist, served as a discussant at both the Haiti and Washington workshops, and Andy White, forest economist, at the Washington workshop. In Washington, Rochelle Rainey presented findings on population, health, and the environment, based on the chapter co-authored by D’Agnes and Tobias. Haitian co-authors for the team’s background analysis, Marc- Antoine Noel (agronomist) and Jean-Andre Victor (environmental lawyer), also made presentations at the Haiti workshop.

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS 3

Toussaint). A brief final chapter draws on earlier sections of the report and synthesizes key elements of an emergent strategy for mitigating natural disaster in Haiti’s watersheds.

In the early stages of this assessment, high level representatives of the Haitian government asked the team to assess prospects in Haiti for liquid biofuels including plant oil and biodiesel. The team responded in keeping with its mandate to take into account the concerns of critical stakeholders. Therefore, this report also includes a chapter that explores prospects for biofuels in Haiti (Marc Portnoff).

The role of biofuels (including wood charcoal) in donor environmental strategies remains controversial in Haiti. This is due in part to environmentally destructive aspects of charcoal as the predominant cooking fuel in urban Haiti. In addition, current controversy over prospects for new biofuels stems from recent trends for high fuel costs. This has generated high levels of enthusiasm for liquid biofuel alternatives such as biodiesel, although there is little experience with it in Haiti. At the present time, promotion of liquid biofuels as an element of USAID/Haiti strategy remains exploratory and is not a near term option for large direct investments. The Mission’s near term planning does include initiatives to improve charcoal efficiency and sustainability. The Mission’s longer term strategy may also support pilot efforts and continued monitoring of liquid biofuel opportunities in Haiti, including prospects for private-public partnerships.

Some of the findings in this report reflect natural resource management (NRM) themes and recommendations already presented in earlier studies, particularly the July 2005 report noted earlier, Agriculture in a Fragile Environment: Market Incentives for Natural Resource Management in Haiti. This is hardly surprising due to inescapable recurring themes that emerge when confronting the persistent dilemma of how to make an impact in Haiti’s highly degraded watersheds. One persistent dilemma, for example, is the difficulty of scaling up from scattered farm plots in order to treat entire slopes or whole watersheds with erosion control measures or market-oriented perennial crops.

So what is new in the present report? The assessment team consulted with a much broader range of stakeholders, including interlocutors outside of the usual network of environmental partners.6 Secondly, the team used GIS analysis to quantify and rank all of Haiti’s major watersheds in terms of their vulnerability to severe flooding. This type of science-based ranking has never been done before and is an unprecedented new contribution. Third, this study takes note of current new developments that show promise, e.g., business partnerships between small peasant farmers and affluent private sector interests, and new evidence of landscape level changes in tree cover due to peasant tree gardens cropped for sustainable charcoal harvest.7 Fourth, this assessment takes special note of highly stressed mangrove ecosystems and estuaries as an important target for flood control and protection of livelihoods in river delta areas. Finally, this report recognizes new biofuel trends in the world, and examines prospects for biofuel in Haiti as an element of watershed strategy.

6 This process also included extended conversations with representatives of both the outgoing Interim Government and the newly elected government of President Préval.

7 This pattern of market-oriented tree cropping and these particular sites were originally established by small peasant farmers under the AID funded Agroforestry Outreach Project of the early 1980s.

4 ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

II. POPULATION, HEALTH, AND THE ENVIRONMENT

by Heather D’Agnes and Scot Tobias8

Calamities from extreme weather highlight how environmental hazards combine with socioeconomic conditions to magnify the threat of disaster for tens of millions of people in both the developed and the developing world. In an attempt to understand the full range of factors that affect Haiti’s growing vulnerability to severe storms, this chapter links population and health trends with the environment as pivotal factors that greatly exacerbate the effects of natural disasters. The present chapter also briefly examines health problems of indoor pollution due to the use of firewood and wood charcoal as cooking fuel.

Policymakers and practitioners routinely assert that high population growth and rapid urbanization increase the negative effects of natural disasters; however, these declarations rarely lead to effective action since standard responses to natural disasters focus on short term alleviation of immediate distress. A long-term approach should examine the relationship among natural disasters and development patterns, population growth, spatial distribution, and the underlying rationale for demographic behaviors. This type of analysis generates recommendations that address structural issues rather than short-term remedial actions.

HAITI’S DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE

Haiti has a youthful and rapidly growing population with an increasing tendency to cluster in urban areas. A recent census by the Haitian Institute of Statistics (IHSI) estimates Haiti’s population at 8.4 million.9 The annual population growth rate of 2.5 percent per year is higher than previous estimations; women average 4.9 children.

Population growth results exclusively from childbearing since Haiti’s net migration rate is –1.3 migrants per 1,000. It is estimated that the Haitian population will grow to 10 million by 2010, an increase of 19 percent in just four years.

This growth rate is striking since the average life expectancy was 53 years in 2006, 51.9 years for males and 54.6 years for females. Haiti’s health indicators are the worst in the western hemisphere with an annual death rate of 12.2 deaths per 1,000 population, infant mortality at nearly 72 deaths per 1,000 live births, a maternal death ratio of 523 women per 100,000 live births, and an HIV prevalence rate of 4-5 percent of the total population (UNFPA, 2006). This further demonstrates that high fertility is the primary cause of burgeoning population growth.

In addition, Haiti’s population is increasingly dense and concentrated in urban areas.

Haiti is the western hemisphere’s second most densely populated country with 302 persons per square kilometer, trailing only Barbados (UNFPA, 2006). With an urbanization ratio of 40 percent, a growing proportion of Haiti's population now lives in urban settlements including shantytowns in coastal flood plains such as Cité Soleil and La Saline in Port-au-Prince, Raboteau in Gonaïves, and La Faucette in Cap-Haïtien. The

8 Rochelle Rainey also contributed to this chapter and presented its findings at the Washington workshop.

9 The 2003 census is Haiti’s fourth, following those of 1950, 1971 and 1982.

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS 5

country’s high urban population growth rate of 3.63 percent and low rural population growth rate of 0.92 percent reflects high rates of migration from rural to urban areas (UN Habitat, 2001). The Port-au-Prince metropolitan area alone, including seven neighboring municipalities, now comprises more than one-fourth of Haiti’s population. This reflects an urban growth rate of five percent annually between 1982 and 2003 in Haiti’s most urbanized département (Ouest). Consequently, an estimated 62 percent of all urban dwellers in Haiti live in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince (IHSI, 2003).

Haiti’s population will continue to grow rapidly due in large part to its high population momentum. Population momentum refers to the percentage of the population that has not yet had children but will eventually add to the population through reproduction. In Haiti, 50 percent of the country’s population is under the age of 20 (see Figure 1). Haitians are sexually active in their teens; the median age of sexual debut for women is 18.2. In addition, 31.3 percent of women age 20-24 give birth before the age of 20 (ORC Macro, 2000). As a result, the higher the percentage of people age 20 and under, the larger the population growth will be. Therefore, Haiti’s population will continue to grow – even if the fertility rate over the next few years begins to decline. For a graphic representation of past and projected population growth by age, see Figure 2 on the next page.

SOURCE: United States Census Bureau (BUCEN), International Programs Center. International Database.

FACTORS INFLUENCING POPULATION GROWTH

Lack of access to family planning

There is scant data on access to family planning services and information in Haiti;

however, data gathered by the Haiti Demographic Health Survey (DHS) in 1994/5 and 2000 demonstrate a clear lack of sufficient family planning services (see Table 1).

Contraceptive prevalence rate is low at 28.1 percent for all methods of family planning and 22.8 percent for modern methods. Expressed desire for family planning services exceeded availability of those services; 56.9 percent of married women want no more

6 ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

children and 39.6 percent of women express an unmet need for family planning. In addition, women only want an average of 3.1 children but end up having 4.7 children.

One reason for the high unmet need for family planning is that Haiti’s reproductive health services are primarily health centers and district hospitals clustered in urban areas (see Table 2).

Thus, a large percentage of the population lacks sufficient access to outlets for family planning. Due to the limited distribution network, the population depends largely on permanent to semi-permanent family planning methods such as female sterilization and Norplant implants rather than shorter-term family planning commodities such as pills and condoms. This inhibits the ability of many women, especially rural women, to space the births of their children without eliminating the ability to have more children.

Table 1. Key Family Planning Indicators

FERTILITY INDICATORS 1994/95 2000

Total fertility rate (children per women) 4.8 4.7

Percent (%) of teenagers who have begun childbearing 14.5 18.0

Fertility preferences

Percent (%) of married women who want no more children 52.5 56.9

Percent (%) of married women with an unmet need for family planning 44.5 39.6

Mean ideal number of children 3.3 3.1

Family planning use indicators

Percent (%) of married women currently using any method of family planning 18.0 28.1

Percent (%) of married women currently using any modern method of family planning 13.2 22.8

Other proximate determinates of fertility

Median age at first marriage for women age 25-49 (years 20.8 20.5

Median age at first sex for women age 25-49 (years) 19.0 18.2

Source: ORC MACRO, 2006. MEASURE DHS STATCOMPILER. May 29 2006. http://www.measuredhs.com

Figure 2. Haiti’s Projected Population by Age

Source: World Resources Institute

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS 7

Table 2. Percentage Distribution of Current Users of Modern Methods by the Most Recent Source of Supply according to Method

Source Contraceptive Method

Pill Implant Injectable Condom Female sterilization

Public sector (hospital and health centers) 21.9 21.9 24 4.5 55.5

Private medical sector (hospital/clinic, health centers, physician, pharmacy)

41.2 45.7 25.8 37.4 23.4

Mixed sector medical sector (hospital/clinic, health center, family planning clinic)

24.3 32 39.4 4.8 18.1

Noninstitutional medical sector (mobile clinic, health agent/promoter, midwife)

8.4 0 10.3 1.1 0.3

Other informal sector (store, market, acquaintances) 4.2 0.0 0.5 51.3 0.0

Source: Studies in Family Planning, “HAITI 2000: results from the demographic and health survey,” 2003.

Unfortunately, family planning services in Haiti tend to be poor in quality. Based on the Maternal and Neonatal Program Effort Index (MNPI), Haiti received a low overall ranking of 49 out of 100 for family planning services provided at health centers and district hospitals (Bulatao and Ross, 2002; Ross, Campbell, et al., 2001). Figure 3 shows individual ratings for family planning services provided at health centers and district hospitals. Both health centers and district hospitals received relatively high ratings for pill supplies (56 and 57, respectively) and postpartum family planning (both 56). Male sterilization (43) was the lowest-rated service for district hospitals, whereas IUD insertion was the lowest for health centers (26).

Impacts of Poverty on Access to Family Planning

High population growth is particularly acute among the poor. The 2000 DHS demonstrates that fertility levels differ significantly among social groups, with the poorest sectors showing much higher levels of fertility. These fertility patterns reflect the fact that limited

Figure 3. Provision of family planning services at health centers and district hospitals in Haiti

8 ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS

availability of family planning and health services in Haiti has the severest impact on poor women. Women frequently bear full responsibility for all family-related decisions and concerns but have the least capacity to exercise their reproductive preferences.

Women from the lowest socioeconomic level in Haiti have twice as many children as they would like to have. Their inability to exercise their reproductive rights is the starting point for a vicious circle centered on the intergenerational transmission of poverty. Poor women have limited information and resources to limit the number of births. Forced to rear many children, these women have greater difficulty in obtaining paid employment, leading to a lower per capita income for their families. During emergency situations and disasters, such inequities become more acute.

Current USAID Efforts in Access to Family Planning

USAID funds several projects to provide support to family planning programs in Haiti. In particular, USAID is reinforcing the capacity of institutions nationwide to deliver clinical family planning methods. Anticipated results are increased access to and use of modern and natural family planning services and related maternal health care, and strengthened quality of essential maternal and neonatal care. Reproductive health services are closely integrated with HIV-related activities under the President's Emergency Plan for HIV/AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). 10

Between 1995 and 2000, a USAID-funded project operated by Management Sciences for Health (MSH) and its partners established an NGO network (34 members) to streamline services, deliver a minimum package of services, and develop strategies to inform and educate the public. This network has had a significant impact. Between 1997 and 1999, use of modern contraceptive methods increased from 15.7 percent to 25 percent at project sites; “three plus” prenatal visits increased from 44 percent to 61 percent; and the number of trained personnel attending deliveries increased from 63 percent to 79 percent. The appropriate use of oral rehydration therapy (ORT) and full immunization also improved significantly in project areas.

HEALTH SERVICES, POVERTY, AND VULNERABILITY

Environmental Health Services

Following natural disaster, any affected population requires shelter from the elements and access to clean water, proper sanitation, and energy sources. The number of people put at risk by interruption of water and sanitation service due to natural disaster can easily be three or four orders of magnitude greater than the number of people killed or injured by that same disaster. Provision of environmental health, water, and sanitation services in the absence of a natural disaster is complex and requires coordinated efforts by national government ministries, local government units, civil society, and the private sector. When these institutions and their coordination are weak, the systems and infrastructure for these services are particularly vulnerable to disruption due to natural disasters.

10 Principal contractors are Johns Hopkins Program for International Education in Gynecology and Obstetrics, the Futures Group, Management Sciences for Health (MSH), and Population Services International.

ENVIRONMENTAL VULNERABILITY IN HAITI: FINDINGS & RECOMMENDATIONS 9

In the case of reproductive health services, natural disasters can accentuate reproductive health needs by intensifying the inability of couples and individuals to exercise their reproductive rights due to:

• Deterioration of health services

• Difficulty in access to services as a direct consequence of disaster

• A shift in medical priorities away from reproductive health services

Natural disasters also tend to increase the incidence of sexual abuse, sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies due to the poor conditions in shelters, and the vulnerability of minors separated from caretaker adults. For example, the 3,000 deaths attributed to Tropical Storm Jeanne in Gonaïves (2004) generated a sizeable number of orphaned children.

Overall, fertility tends to decrease in times of crisis, but fertility later tends to increase along with recovery. Experiences of war, famine, and other disasters clearly demonstrate this trend. Recent data from a 2001 survey show that fertility in Honduras for the period 1999-2001, after a period of recovery from Hurricane Mitch, were much higher than projected (ASHONPLAFA, & CDC, 2002).

Population Trends, Poverty, and Vulnerability

Links between population trends, poverty, and degraded natural resources are the central feature of Haiti’s vulnerability to tropical storms. Growing rural poverty is the dominant precipitating factor behind the country’s rapid rate of urbanization. High rural-urban migration is motivated largely by the search for employment and access to schooling.

Rapid urbanization has severely aggravated the impact of natural disasters in Haiti, especially among the poor, and has imposed heightened pressures on the environment.

The urban poor in Haiti often have no choice but to occupy the least-valued plots of land in disaster-prone areas such as riverbanks, unstable hillsides, deforested lands, or fragile catchment areas. In general, the densely populated slum districts of Haiti’s coastal cities are located to a large degree in flood plains.11

These populations are highly vulnerable to disease and natural disaster. Upland soil erosion causes massive deposit of solids in lowland floodplains, overwhelming the capacity of both natural and manmade drainage systems. Downstream flooding creates breeding grounds for insect vectors.

Flooding also mobilizes pathogens in human feces and other solid waste deposited on the ground.

Public systems for the handling and disposal of human waste are virtually non-existent. Open pit latrines, field defecation, and use of “scandal bags”

11 Chapter IV addresses this issue in more detail with a view to prioritizing interventions in order to mitigate the effects of natural disaster.

“...poverty and population pressure force growing numbers of poor people to live in harm’s way — on flood plains, in earthquake-prone zones and on unstable hillsides.”

- Kofi Annan,…