Against the backdrop of Haiti’s devastating environmental degradation, communities across the country were engaged in quiet, determined reforestation efforts in 2020 that offered both ecological hope and proof that community-led environmental action could produce results even under difficult conditions. In the mountains of the Central Plateau, the hillsides above Cap-Haïtien, and communities throughout the south, local organizations were planting trees, protecting seedlings, and rebuilding green cover one hillside at a time.
These community reforestation efforts, often supported by international environmental organizations and diaspora networks, were driven by practical as well as environmental motivations. Communities that had experienced devastating floods and landslides understood in the most immediate terms the connection between tree cover and their own safety. Farmers whose yields had declined with increasing soil erosion had a direct economic interest in restoring vegetation to their hillsides.
The work was slow and often frustrating. Political instability disrupted project timelines and supply chains. Economic pressures drove some community members to cut trees for charcoal even as others were planting. And the scale of what needed to be reforested — thousands of denuded hillsides across a country the size of Maryland — was orders of magnitude beyond what community efforts alone could address.
Environmental organizations called for massive international investment in Haitian reforestation, including support for alternative livelihoods that could reduce dependence on charcoal, improved cookstove programs, and policy changes that would give communities legal security over the land they were replanting. They argued that environmental recovery was inseparable from the social and political recovery that Haiti needed.