In October of 2011, the Lambi Fund of Haiti’s board and staff members planned to spend three days in Southern Haiti to visit grain mills, sheep farming and ox-plowing projects.  The plan was to stay in Les Cayes and travel daily to different project sites located in neighboring rural communities. 

Unrelenting rains offered visitors a unique opportunity to understand how accelerated deforestation affects the realities of partner communities and Lambi Fund staff.

The first site visit to The Organization of Good Samaritans (OBS) was a suspense-filled journey as board and staff traveled on flooded roads, apprehensively watching the water levels rise as they moved further inland.   The visit to this thriving grain mill (first funded by Lambi Fund eight years ago) had to be curtailed because of the risk posed by rapidly rising waters. 

Staying in Les Cayes, a town of about 100,000 citizens, did not prove more comforting. Following three days of steady rainfall, cresting rivers and swollen ravines flooded the city and its surrounding rural communities.

Waist high flood waters in both rural and urban areas drove home the point that deforestation impacts Haitians on a regular basis.

For Lambi Fund staff, especially the regional coordinators, visits to project sites have become increasingly risky propositions, particularly during the rainy season.  Roads become impassable at a moment’s notice, and journeys quickly turn life-threatening for staff traveling by car or motor bike.

So how does deforestation impact flooding?  While statistics vary, most agree that tree cutting has reduced Haiti’s tree coverage from 1-4%.  The resulting erosion of Haiti’s mountains has destroyed an estimated two-thirds of the country’s fertile farmland. This loss of trees has meant that arable soil, anchored to the land by their roots, is quickly washed away during the rainy season.

Consequently, without any soil and roots to hold water, a normal amount of water are not absorbed.  As such, rainy seasons have turned Haiti into a landscape of overflowing rivers - carrying with them valuable top soil and causing immeasurable damage.

While the world holds its breath when forecasted hurricanes approach Haiti, not much attention is paid to the impact of the rainy season on farming communities. 

For Lambi Fund’s partners, deforestation has transformed the rainy season from a much awaited source of irrigation to a season fraught with danger, one engendering unanticipated losses and devastation.

This was witnessed in the recent visit to the South, where some organizations lost 50% of their crops and about 80% of pastures for sheep were destroyed.  This means that farmers, who accessed credit from the community-run mutual credit funds, will experience great hardships.  Their repayment plans often hinge on the anticipated sale of crops.  Meanwhile, sheep growers’ profitability is jeopardized since they will be forced to reinvest in the purchase and preparation of animal feed.

As this vulnerability becomes more apparent, appreciation for Lambi Fund’s reforestation efforts has grown.   Partners have responded by participating enthusiastically in training workshops offered on reforestation and seedling cultivation.  Members of organizations work collectively to build nurseries, care for seedlings, and replant young trees on their lands and in vulnerable watershed areas.

 For the past ten years, Lambi Fund has been steadfast in its comprehensive, grassroots-driven reforestation efforts.

In addition to including a reforestation component in all   funded projects, Lambi Fund has incorporated environmentally safe practices in other programmatic activities, most notably animal husbandry. Free grazing has been identified as a significant cause of deforestation and environmental degradation, particularly when goats and sheep are allowed to feed on young trees and seedlings. As a result, all Lambi Fund supported animal husbandry projects build enclosures where animals are kept.  The offered workshops show farmers how to grow and preserve the forage needed to keep their animals well-fed and healthy even during the dry season.

Over the course of 10 years, Lambi Fund partners have prepared over 1.5 million seedlings and have planted 1.2 million tree saplings. It is estimated that 60% of these trees survive, meaning that about 720,000 trees have matured in communities throughout Haiti. 

Lambi Fund also has plans to hire an agronomist with expertise in agro-forestry who will oversee all reforestation projects.  In addition, staff members are exploring the use of grassroots-friendly GPS technology to better document the impact of Lambi Fund’s reforestation projects.  Mapping reforestation progress will better allow Lambi Fund to see the strengths and weakness regarding tree planting efforts – allowing staff to enforce and adapt strategies as needed.

In spite of the daunting challenges presented to farmers by deforestation, they are not losing hope.  Clermont Yogane Enold, a twenty-something farmer of the Association of Youth from Tet-Kole Bedo, summarized it most eloquently. When asked what they would do to address the losses sustained in the floods he replied: “We cannot give into despair, we will work the land, plant trees and grow our crops once again....” 

Links:

• Lambi Fund website
• Programs
• Haiti Resources