The project "Project Sustainable Management of the Limbé Watershed and Environmental Services from Agriculture in Northeast Haiti" is carried out by Agrisud International and its Haitian partner organisation Gradimirh. It is funded by the French Development Agency (AFD) and the Regional Council of Aquitaine. The main aim of the project is the sustainable development and the enhancement of the Limbé watershed in Haiti, while taking into account the development of agricultural activities and the protection of natural resources. The main objectives of the project are:

•    The fight against poverty and the participation to economic and social development of rural communities.

•    To sustainably contribute to the preservation and enhancement of natural resources (water, soil, biodiversity).

•    To increase the adaptation to climate change events and contribute to the mitigation of further climate change (resilience of agricultural systems, mitigation by reducing agricultural GHG emissions and carbon sequestration).

The here presented assessment is therefore part of the third objective of the project and demonstrates that a development project may also have a significant and synergetic impact in terms of climate change mitigation and preservation of natural capital. This preliminary study was conducted in cooperation with the State University of Haiti, including the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine in Port au Prince.

The first estimates, developed by this study, show that the implementation of the project as compared to an alternative baseline scenario, leads to a reduction in emissions and especially net carbon sequestration, with a net balance of 22,437 tCO2-eq in 400 ha over 20 years. When computed on a per hectare basis, this project represents thus a net profit, compared to the baseline without implementation, of 2.8 tCO2-eq / ha / year, which underlines the comparative strong project performance in terms of climate change mitigation.