MCC Haiti Plants 5000 trees for National Tree Day

By Joshua Steckley, an MCC service worker in Haiti

Mennonite Central Committee supports 22 local tree nurseries around Desarmes, a small town in the Artibonite Valley in Haiti. Each year, these nurseries produce a combined 450,000 fruit and forestry trees which are distributed and sold in the community.

This video offers a glimpse of one such community distribution in the rural village of Savannawòch.

In celebration of Haiti’s National Tree Day on June 24th, over 150 community volunteers joined the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) to plant 5000 trees on a mountainside near the town of Desarmes in central Haiti.

MCC staff and service workers, local students, community organizations, and municipal government officials all took part in the day’s activities intended to raise awareness for the local environment.

Jides Alcine, 17, a student at l’Ecole Jean Jacques Arcoroc has been participating in the annual event for four years now. “Four years ago, this mountain was completely dry and dusty,” he says. “Now, you can see it is green and there are trees taller than me.” Alcine, and other students like him planted between 20 and 30 trees each throughout the morning.

Lenaud Vermilus, a local councilman, said his decision to take part in the tree planting was simple. “We want to participate in the development of our country, and we’ve already seen the fruits of MCC’s work in the area.”

Deforestation in Haiti

Deforestation in Haiti is among the worst cases in the world. In 1923, over 60 percent of the country was forested, but by 2006 this had declined to only 2%.

Deforestation in Haiti began shortly after the first colonizers arrived in the late Fifteenth Century and began chopping down trees to sell in Europe. The slave trade, and subsequent plantation economy furthered such clear cutting to increase the sugar production.

Today, marginalized rural populations rely on charcoal production to generate income for such costs as school or healthcare. MCC is not necessarily against charcoal production.

Jean Remy Azor, Cordinator of MCC’s reforestation program, people need trees to make money. “We are not against making charcoal; it is how people can survive. There only must be an equilibrium where the trees cut are equal to or less than number of trees planted.”

MCC has a specific strategy, called a “small forest,” that encourages people to harvest trees sustainable. Azor notes that dozens participates now have over 5 years in the program and can sustainable harvest each year about $1000 worth of wood on a two acre piece of land.

Community Tree Planting

For Haiti’s national tree day, however, MCC focused on environmental protection. The 5000 trees were planted on a 38 acre piece of land which was established as a protected zone in 2008 by a committee made up of local officials, MCC, land owners, and several peasant organizations. Since that time, the committee has planted over 200,000 trees. Vermilus said that reforestation requires community action, only one facet of this action is actually planting the trees.

In addition to charcoal production, slash and burn agriculture, and free grazing of animals are other serious challenges. Vermilus and other officials work with MCC to enforce existing laws to preserve this land. “If someone lets a fire get out of control, or let’s their goats loose on the land, they’ll appear before the court and we’ll decide collectively what needs to be done,” said Vermilus.

Earthquake Reconstruction and the Environment

Jean Remy Azor insists that the environment must continue to be a priority for Haiti, even as it attempts to rebuild after the devastating earthquake over two years ago.

“Unfortunately,” says Azor, “there was an ecological emergency far before the earthquake.” He says that all reconstruction, whether it is housing development, agriculture, community health, or water, comes down to the environment. “All aspects of Haiti’s development are dependent on the health of our soil.”

MCC is nearing the end of their annual tree distribution program. This year, MCC supported 22 locally managed tree nurseries, producing over 450,000 seedlings, both fruit and forestry trees, for sale and distribution.

“There was much more demand this year. Normally we sell between 10-15% of the trees produced, and give the rest away. This year, some tree nurseries were selling 60% of their trees in the community,” Azor said. He welcomes this development. “It shows that communities can reforest the land in an economically, socially, and environmentally sustainable way.”

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