Why Haiti is so vulnerable to inclement weather?The havoc caused by hurricanes in Haiti are the result of the vagaries of nature, but also relate to the vast deforestation of the country and the extreme poverty of its inhabitants.
Haiti, whose extension of vegetation is estimated at less than 2%, suffered three weeks in an equal number of hurricanes, Gustav, Hanna and Ike, whose rains caused flooding which caused devastation, much more than in neighbouring Dominican Republic.
At least 590 people died in Haiti, one million were affected, agricultural plantations were destroyed, roads and bridges destroyed, according to national and international sources.
In the poorest country in the Americas, where 70% of the population lives on less than $ 2 per day, the vast majority of households use charcoal for cooking.
"There is a real emergency, we must take steps to curb environmental degradation in Haiti", told AFP the representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Haiti, French Joel Boutroue.
"At this rate of deforestation, we head against the wall," warned an official of the UN.
According to him, destruction of forests helps to make the country more vulnerable to inclement weather but also to increasing poverty in Haiti.
For the Haitian Minister of Environment, Jean-Marie Claude Germain, the absence of a genuine environmental policy also contributed to the vulnerability of Haiti. According to him, the problem goes back to the country's independence in the early nineteenth century.
"For centuries, farmers mountain related to the conditions under which Haiti had its independence. This practice made the country even more fragile," analyzed.
The systematic pruning wood that is practiced for the manufacture of charcoal, as well as that used in the bakery or laundry, is an important factor in environmental degradation in Haiti.
"In the neighbouring Dominican Republic, which is estimated at approximately 30% extension plant, was the army that until recently was responsible for this sector, unlike Haiti, where there is no environmental policy," noted the minister Haitian.
Other factors of the vulnerability of Haiti: the topographical configuration of the country and its geographical position. With 80% of the structures mountainous country receives threats of all groups of cyclone, estimated the meteorologist Ronald Semelfort.
Boutroue called the Haitian government and international partners to work towards the environment and "move quickly" to rethink reforestation programmes and development of river basins.
The coordinator of international aid in Haiti wanted the country's development programmes impact on people's lives. "They see the changes now while waiting for major reforms of the state," he said.
