Forestry policies, institutions and programmes |
Administration
The Service des Forêts and the Environmental Protection Service, both of the Ministère de l¿Agriculture, des Ressources Naturelles et du Developpment Rural (MANDR), are responsible for forest activities and environmental protection on the island. MANDR is the lead agency for water and soil conservation throughout the island. Within this Ministry there is also a National Park and Natural Area Service. The Service des Forêts is a unit within the Natural Resources Division; it has been assigned the responsibility for Reforestation and Agro-forestry; Mapping and Forest Statistics; Forest Policy and Management; and Administration.
For operational purposes MANDR has divided the island into regional zones, which are supervised by technicians from the Ministry. The work in the different zones is not well coordinated.
The Service des Forêts shares responsibility for managing the forests with ISPAN (Institute pour la Sauvegarde du Patrimoine National), an agency for tourism and the Ministry of Planning and Cooperation.
Policies
The National Forest laws of 1926 were among the first laws to be established for the preservation of forests in Haiti. Next came the Rural Code of 1963, which recommended the planting of trees, forbade the cutting of wood without authorization; forbade the use of fruit trees for charcoal production, and provided protection for trees on sloping land.
Haiti has little experience in managing the forest resources. The main objectives appear to be centred around programmes for the protection of the remaining forest resources and reforestation of denuded areas in the fight against soil erosion.
In 1995, a FAO-sponsored project led to the identification of four priorities:
- protection of the principal forest concentrations subject to the greatest pressures;
- improvement in the urban transformation of charcoal to energy;
- agroforestry as a source of trees to reduce pressure on the natural forests;
- strengthening the forestry institution, both centrally and decentralized. The National Forest Action Plan allows for Forestry Extension and Agroforestry programmes.
Adequate legislation is also needed to address the diminishing wildlife population; the current legislation permits the owners of a registered firearm to hunt any game animal.
Last updated: March 2002