This short video, crafted by some great friends at Hemmings House Pictures, highlights the core of my work in Haiti. To support the project, please visit here: osufoundation.org/HaitiNurseryFund or email Anthony
Haiti was once considered the Pearl of the Antilles, a biologically rich and geographically diverse country that quickly transformed into a major economic driver of Napoleonic France. Following the revolution that led to independence, the remaining natural resources in the country were progressively depleted in an effort to make debt payments and support local needs. These practices have led to Haiti being one of the world’s most-deforested countries. Continuous pressure from governance challenges to natural disasters to subsistence farming has only served to maintain, or even increase, these pressures. Efforts to ameliorate this have been made through numerous reforestation projects that have been initiated and completed with varying degrees of success for the past 50 years. This trend will continue, given the global recognition of Haiti’s need for support in this arena, and while gains have been made in agronomic production, relatively little work has been conducted in the native plant production component. This small but necessary need provides an opportunity to conserve endangered species including the endemic Pinus occidentalis, a high-mountain five-needle pine that serves as a core component of myriad avian and mammalian habitats. This project has focused on a community-based approach to provide low-cost, science based inputs to rural communities in Haiti that are interested in native plant conservation. With heavily degraded sites and relatively low education focused on the skills needed in ecological restoration fields, this partnership has worked to provide training, materials, and other much needed support to grow high quality seedlings for restoration plantings. Using a capacity-building approach that involves local communities, this partnership is a mix of conducting research and technology transfer in a real-time effort to help arrest the trend of native forest cover loss. Beginning in 2015, a small native plant nursery was established in Kenscoff, with the dual aims of a) using science-based methods to provide high quality seedlings for restoration of degraded forest conditions and b) serving as the base for women in the community to learn about plant biology, water and soil conservation, and environmental stewardship in an informal, collaborative, setting. With less than 2% forest cover remaining country-wide, the Chinese proverb “the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now” certainly rings true.
If you are looking to share a shorter version of the above video, here is the trailer: