US embassy cable - 05PORTAUPRINCE1325

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PORT AU PRINCE 001325 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WHA/CAR 
WHA/EPSC 
OES/E 
OES/ENV 
OES/ETC 
TREASURY FOR ALLEN RODRIGUEZ, GREGORY BERGER, WILLIAM 
BALDRIDGE, LARRY MCDONALD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON, EAGR, EAID, SENV, HA 
SUBJECT: ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION IN HAITI EXACERBATES 
POVERTY 
 
1. SUMMARY: Poor land management in Haiti, caused by 
poverty, has led to deforestation, land loss, and aquifer 
depletion.  All three exacerbate poverty in Haiti by 
increasing the cost of food production and dependence on 
more expensive imported food.  Though the Government of 
Haiti has long known about the link between environmental 
destruction and poverty, they have been unable to make 
progress protecting the environment.  The current government 
complains that they lack the information and capacity to 
act.  A new proposed law calls for the creation of a corps 
of decentralized technical advisors.  However, their ability 
to make significant changes is doubtful; Haiti's dangerous 
cycle of poverty and environmental destruction will be 
difficult to break. END SUMMARY. 
 
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Arable Land and Water Disappearing 
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2. Haiti's arable land, aquifers, and surface water are 
gradually being depleted by a cycle of poverty, land 
mismanagement and tree felling.  Impoverished Haitians have 
all but denuded the mountains by cutting trees to make 
charcoal.  According to a USAID reforestation report, Haiti 
is nearly 99 percent deforested.  The loss of vegetative 
cover has accelerated the erosion of mountain farmland and 
carried sand into the valleys covering farmland.  According 
to Ministry of Agriculture advisor, Jean Arsene Constant, in 
addition to flood-caused loss of farmland, water absorption 
and retention in the mountains is insufficient to replenish 
the aquifers or maintain year-round surface water in many 
areas. 
 
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Higher Cost of Living Exacerbates Poverty 
----------------------------------------- 
 
3. Constant also said that environmental degradation raises 
the cost of living and makes Haitians poorer.  Dwindling 
arable land has caused Haitian farmers to move to less 
productive land and use more fertilizer to increase their 
productivity.  Both have led to land loss through 
salinization and increased erosion.  Meanwhile, the scarcity 
of surface water and the depletion of aquifers have caused 
many farmers to dig deeper and deeper wells; much of the 
arable land that remains is irrigated from deep expensive 
wells that tap shrinking aquifers.  As farmland and water 
have disappeared, fertilizer use and well-derived irrigation 
have increased.  As a result, food production has dropped, 
even though the price of local food has risen, pushing up 
the cost of living and exacerbating poverty. 
 
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Government Historically Ineffective 
----------------------------------- 
 
4. Historically, the Haitian government has been aware of 
the severity of Haiti's environmental problems and their 
economic impact.  However, they have consistently been 
unable to make progress protecting the environment.  The 
most recent national environmental plan, published in 1999, 
is out of date, lacks specific information about the 
environment, lacks indicators that could be used to track 
its effectiveness, and is administratively cumbersome.  For 
example, the plan outlines the linked problems of erosion 
and deforestation, but does not provide any specifics or 
detailed assessment of either.  In addition, beyond creating 
an administrative body, the plan proposes no means of 
monitoring or evaluating its own progress.  The plan has 
never been implemented. 
 
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Ministries Lack Information and Clearly Defined Roles 
--------------------------------------------- -------- 
 
5. According to the Minister of Environment, Yves-Andre 
Wainright, institutional barriers impede progress on erosion 
control and water management; the Ministries do not have the 
capacity or information to make a plan for the environment; 
and the roles of the ministries are ill defined.  Ministry 
of Agriculture advisors recently complained that they lack 
sufficient knowledge about environmental problems to create 
a new national plan.  They said, for example, that though 
they know salinization is a problem for many farmers in the 
Artibonite Valley, in central Haiti, they know neither the 
rate nor the extent of land loss due to salinization. 
Further, they said that they do not have capacity to get the 
information they need. 
 
6. Wainright also said that the roles of the ministries 
treating environmental problems have been poorly defined, 
which has caused conflict among the ministries and stymied 
action.  The Ministries of the Environment and Agriculture 
have both been charged with environmental protection. 
However, in the past, the Ministries' disagreements over how 
to proceed have often prevented them from taking action. 
 
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New Framework: Towards Decentralization 
--------------------------------------- 
7. While there is currently no legislature to pass laws, a 
framework law developed by the Ministries of Agriculture and 
Environment in conjunction with NGOs and the private sector 
was recently released for public comment.  The draft law 
seeks to remedy the lack of environmental information and 
the poorly defined roles of the Ministries by decentralizing 
the problem. 
 
8. The law would create a group of 3000 technical advisors, 
paid by the central government, but trained to work with 
municipal governments on local environmental problems. 
Minister of the Environment Wainright was optimistic that 
these 'environmental police' could redress the lack of 
centrally held information by working locally.  He also 
hoped that, because municipal governments would direct the 
cadre of technical advisors, they would be immune to inter- 
ministerial conflicts. 
 
9. COMMENT: Increased cooperation between the historically 
at-odds Ministry of the Environment and Ministry of 
Agriculture is heartening.  However, the effectiveness of 
the framework law, which cannot be enacted until a new 
national government is elected, is questionable.  It does 
not address fundamental issues such as the need to define 
clear Ministerial roles or build capacity for central 
planning and coordination.  In addition, it is not clear 
where the IGOH would get the money or the trained 
professionals to staff and pay for 3000 'environmental 
police'.  Many of Haiti's environmental problems are dire 
and national in scope; it is unlikely that local advisors 
alone will be able to break Haiti's cycle of poverty and 
environmental destruction.  END COMMENT.