Deforestation in Haiti

Deforestation in Haiti is a commonly seen as a severe environmental problem. Haitians burn wood charcoal for 60% of their domestic energy production. Recent in-depth studies of satellite imagery and environmental analysis regarding forest classification conclude that Haiti has approximately 30% tree cover. In 1923 over 60% of Haiti's land was forested.

In 2006, the country was claimed to have less than 2% forest cover. Although significantly deforested, this estimate has been challenged as drastically incorrect due to unsubstantiated research. Nonetheless, the unsubstantiated 2% estimate has been widely circulated in media and in discourse concerning the country.

The rapid deforestation of Haiti began during the colonial period, and was intensified when coffee was introduced in 1730. Upland forest were cleared and fifty years later, a quarter of the colony's land was under coffee. The system of plantation monoculture and clean -cultivation between rows of coffee, indigo, tobacco, and sugarcane exhausted soil nutrients and led to rapid erosion (Paskett and Pholoctete, 1990).

Following the Haitian revolution, the government was forced to export timber throughout the 19th century to pay off a 90 million franc indemnity to France. No longer under colonial rule, land remained unequally distributed nevertheless, and peasants were granted access only to marginal slopes between 200 and 600m above the fertile plains and below the zones of coffee production. These hillside soils were particularly susceptible to erosion when cleared for farming.

Deforestation sped up after Hurricane Hazel drowned trees throughout the island in 1954. Beginning in about 1954, concessionaires stepped up their logging operations in response to Port-au-Prince's intensified demand for charcoal. Deforestation accelerated, which had already become a problem because of environmentally unsound agricultural practices, rapid population growth, and increased competition over land. Techniques that could make forestry more productive for fuel like coppicing and pollarding were not used.

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