United States Department of Agriculture  Assists With Hurricane Recovery in Haiti

by Roy Jemison, PhD  (Niger 74-76) Research Hydrologist, USDA Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Albuquerque, NM.

Years of deforestation and  inappropriate land uses practiced by the people of Haiti, placed many of the watersheds and agricultural areas at high risk of accelerated erosion and landslides.  In late September of 1998 Hurricane Georges crossed the island and caused extensive damage, particularly in the southern regions of the country.  In response to the human, economic and environmental losses suffered in Haiti, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Haiti mission initiated the Hurricane Georges Recovery Program (HGRP).  To address these problems, the Mission developed the Special Strategic Objective  "Communities recover from Hurricane Georges' impact and reduce their vulnerability to future natural disasters."

USAID/Haiti enlisted the expertise and assistance of numerous US based agencies, organizations, and institutions to develop and implement recovery.  Within USDA the Haiti assistance is being coordinated by the Development Resources Division (DRD) of the International Cooperation and Development program area of the Foreign Agricultural Service.  DRD functions as the primary conduit of USDA technical assistance overseas (whether it comes from the Forest Service, Natural Resources Conservation Service, or a Land Grant College or University) and was provided with modest funds for technical assistance to the people of Haiti in support of the HGRP.

In the fall of 1999 Scott Lewis and I traveled to Port-au-Prince, Haiti to meet with the management team of the USAID/Haiti HGRP and their partners and to visit areas in the country that had been damaged by Hurricane Georges.  Nina Mika manages the HGRP at USAID, which is part of their Environmental Group (EG) managed by Elzadia Washington.  Coordination and implementation of on-the-ground activities of HGRP is managed by Dan O'Neil of  the Pan American Development Foundation.  During that first visit and subsequent visits to areas impacted by Hurricane Georges around Haiti we developed a technical assistance plan that combines direct grants to implementing agencies as well as demand-driven technical assistance .

The USDA has provided technical assistance  to USAID and their implementation partners during the design, implementation and evaluation of activities related to watershed restoration, soil conservation, community involvement and future disaster preparedness.  For example, I was requested to participate with the US Army Corps of Engineers on field visits and design reviews of town protection plans against flooding for the cities of Jacmel and Marigot, on Haiti's southern coast.  The towns sustained extensive flood damage to major roads, bridges and buildings during Hurricane Georges.  The main hospital in Jacmel sits on a unstable bluff above the Jacmel River and is in danger of being undercut if the channel bank is not soon protected.

The USDA is providing financial and technical assistance to two Community Based Organizations (CBOs).  CBOs are structured village groups that have formed in rural areas and allow members to collectively address issues that affect the community or the region.  Fifty kilometers southwest of Port-au-Prince we are working with the Association Groupement Paysan de Palmiste-a-Vin, through Catholic Relief Services (CRS).  The participants in the CBO are constructing contour terraces anchored with perennial grasses and fruit bearing trees such as mangos; restoring and protecting eroded ravines for agricultural and commercial tree production; and implementing controlled livestock grazing.  The members of the CBO  realize that by implementing better land management practices and working together they can restore their agricultural production, become less vulnerable to future catastrophic climatic events, and better their economic stability.

Fifty kilometers further south in the village of Musac we are working with the Committee for the Economic Recovery of Musac (COREM).  The members are implementing activities similar to those of the CBO in Palmiste-a-Vin.  In this case we are working directly with the CBO rather than through a non-governmental organization (NGO).  This is a deviation from the traditional funding method used in Haiti.  The benefit is that it puts control and responsibility for the implementation of the activity in the hands of the people that will benefit most.  COREM has been a development partner of CRS for more than 10 years and has the in-house expertise needed to manage a small-scale conservation project.

Since Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere and Hurricane Georges caused significant economic losses to very poor communities, the decision was made by USAID that community conservation efforts in these vulnerable watersheds would include a paid labor component.  Much of the work is extremely arduous construction of contour rock walls on steep slopes---work that farmers cannot normally afford to do on their own.  Under this program a cash salary is received for 3 days of  labor each 6 day  work  week.  Each week every participant donates 1 day of  labor without compensation and the remaining 2 days of salary go into a community activities fund.  The community fund is most often used to pay schoolteachers, as the government does not provide salaries for teachers in rural areas.  The number of CBOs in Haiti is increasing.  This indicates that people in rural areas are working together more to address common issues such as protection of their dwindling natural resources.

USDA is also working directly with Peace Corps Haiti and has set aside $10,000 to support volunteer efforts related to watershed rehabilitation. Coordinated by Haiti Associate Peace Corps Director Raphael Sebastien and Haiti RPCV Laurie Knop (who also works as a staffer in the Peace Corps Port au Prince office) Volunteers can request up to $1,500 to work with their villages to implement activities related to watershed restoration and protection, soil conservation and training.  One project recently approved is being coordinated by PCV Diantha Garms and will train 45 community leaders in nursery and soil conservation activities, produce 6800 trees, construct 2000 meters of rock walls, and establish 5000 meters of  terraces on mountain slopes.

We continue to pursue opportunities where the USDA can provide assistance to USAID and their partners in areas such as monitoring and analysis of the long-term effectiveness of erosion control structures.  I will be conducting an assessment of the erosion control structures and practices by visiting a cross-section of sites where various practices have been implement to document their status.  This type of information assembled in one document will be very useful to organizations, agencies and individuals when designing future watershed protection activities.

The Hurricane Georges Recovery Program will end as of December 31, 2001.  However we anticipate that the benefits of this program will endure for years to come.

A detailed description of the USAID/Haiti HGRP is available on the Internet at URL: http://www.usaid.gov/environment/hurricane/spohaiti.html.  Additional information about USAID/Haiti can be found at URL: http://www.usaid.gov/ht/index.html.