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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
98 percent of the country's forests have been cut down
Steve Baragona | Petit Guave, Haiti 22 April 2010
Restoring Haiti's hillsides with contour canals, vetiver grass, and trees
Edgar Griffin has lived on this hillside outside the town of Petit Guave for 80 years. He says when he was young, it was lush and green. So green, he says, "You couldn't see a house across from you because it was so green."
Not anymore. Today the mountains are brown and barren. Farmers here try to grow peanuts, but the fertile topsoil washes away in the rain.
"Now, when people plant peanuts, they don't produce as much because the good soil goes into the ocean," says engineer Roudy Valmy with the UN International Organization for Migration1 (IOM).
Clearing land for farming remains2 the main cause of deforestation worldwide, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization. But in Haiti, the loss of tree cover - and the soil erosion that results - has made it much harder for farmers to grow food, worsening the hunger and poverty already gripping the country.
Ninety-eight percent of the country's forests have been cut down, largely to make charcoal3 - the main cooking fuel in Haiti - where alternatives are unavailable or unaffordable. The same forces drive deforestation in many other developing countries.
Changing attitudes
But villager Emmano Nobert says attitudes here are changing.
"In the past, the old people, they saw the trees, but they did not really know the meaning of a tree to the country," he says. "Today, we, the youth, we are studying, and we know the meaning of a tree to our lives."
Nobert and his neighbors approached the IOM for help restoring these hills. The IOM has several projects in the area giving local people jobs restoring the environment. The IOM's Francois Fournier put Nobert's group to work digging short canals in the contours of the hillsides, to slow down the flow of rainwater and curb4 erosion.
Fournier says, "In front of each contour canal we plant vetiver," a grass with deep roots to hold the soil in place. "And in back of every row [of canals] we plant trees - over 20 varieties of trees."
Villagers water trees on a volunteer work day.
"Worth more alive"
Those include fruit-bearing trees like mango, cacao and coffee; and trees that make good building materials that the villagers can sell.
"They're worth more alive than they are as charcoal," says David Delgado with the US Agency for International Development, which funds this project and others.
Delgado notes that trees for charcoal are also planted in order to provide a renewable source of this important cooking fuel.
Results
The project near Petit Guave started just nine months ago, but the results are already plainly visible. From a nearby ridge5, this hillside is noticeably greener than those next to it. The grass and trees help the soil retain more water, and Delgado says the villagers are starting to see benefits.
On a recent visit, he says "They pointed6 down to the bottom of the ravine...and they said, 'You see that tree that's down there? That tree used to never be green this time of year. Since we put in these soil, water catchment programs, that tree has leaves on it.' And more importantly, the water source at the bottom is flowing now year-round."
The denuded7 landscape near Petit Guave. Haiti is 98 percent deforested.
Longtime resident Edgar Griffin is hopeful about the change in attitude from the old generation to the new.
"It was poverty that made them cut down the trees. Now, we can tell the difference in the soil."
A tale of two hillsides
The trees need care in the first two years after planting to help them get established. The IOM does not pay villagers for this work. The IOM's Francois Fournier says the volunteer work is intended to help the community feel ownership of the project.
On a recent afternoon, Griffin's community was out watering and weeding the young trees, singing while they worked in the hot sun.
But other nearby communities do not share this enthusiasm. At a similar project nearby, villagers had stopped watering and weeding young trees months ago. The trees were much smaller and many had died. The hillside was much browner than Griffin's.
"It's better than it was, for sure," Fournier says. "But it was supposed to be two or three times better in the quantity of trees. I'm disappointed. What can I say?"
Fournier says he will not be pursuing any more projects with this community.
Experts say creating jobs replanting trees could make a significant difference across Haiti, where both deforestation and unemployment are rampant8. In the wake of Haiti's devastating9 earthquake and the country's chronic10 hunger problems, the government and international donors11 are considering planting trees as a way to help workers, farmers and the environment all at the same time.
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1
migration
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| n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙 | |
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2
remains
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| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
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3
charcoal
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| n.炭，木炭，生物炭 | |
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4
curb
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| n.场外证券市场，场外交易；vt.制止，抑制 | |
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ridge
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| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
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6
pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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7
denuded
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| adj.[医]变光的，裸露的v.使赤裸( denude的过去式和过去分词 )；剥光覆盖物 | |
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rampant
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| adj.(植物)蔓生的；狂暴的，无约束的 | |
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9
devastating
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| adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的 | |
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chronic
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| adj.(疾病)长期未愈的，慢性的；极坏的 | |
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11
donors
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| n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者 | |
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