The Haiti Tree Project, Haiti
The organisation
Over the last 30 years, deforestation in Haiti has reached a crisis point. With less than two percent of the country’s native forests intact, each rainy season brings monsoons that wash away more precious topsoil, gouging out riverbanks, and creating devastating impacts for communities that depend on the land for food, water, shade, medicine, and other goods. The lack of environmental stability can worsen conditions for families beset by hardships from earthquakes or political unrest.
In 2011, The Haiti Tree Project (THTP) was established in Cavaillon, Haiti, to help regenerate the lush forests that provide ecological balance and food for communities by scaling pre-existing reforestation efforts. Along with shade-grown cacao trees, breadfruit trees along the rivers, and cashew trees on the mountainsides, the reforestation efforts also incorporate a variety of indigenous tree species that support habitat restoration for the region’s abundant biodiversity.
In the last twelve years, the project has planted over 150,000 trees, a mixture of both fruit and native hardwood trees, as well as provided hundreds of hours of community education about how to plant and care for the trees.
Videos
The Haiti Tree Project
Photos
Main tree planting sites
