GEO Haiti 2010

State of the Environment Report 2010
The country’s natural forest cover has gradually
been reduced between 1990 and 2005, shrinking
by 1.4% between 1990 and 2000 and by 1.8%
between 2000 and 2005.
2.2. SCENARIO 2: Nothing New
The second scenario focuses on a situation where
the current trends are maintained. While the
Table 35: Scenario 2: “Nothing New”
government could adopt initiatives to alleviate
the problems, a reversal of the situation seems
unlikely. The wood resources are increasingly
pressured with countermeasures showing little
results; water-resource management is neglected;
forests are diminishing; and the effects of natural
disasters are more severe. Waste management
is still ineffective as in the case of coastal-zone
management.
159
Driving Forces
Population Growth
Energy Needs
State of the
Environment
Descriptions
The population continues to grow at the same pace as in previous years creating
an increasing demand for food. Various food products have to be imported to
cope as national productivity is insufficient because the agricultural sector has yet
to make efficient use of technologies.
Urban migration is on the rise leading to a centralisation of activities in the main
urban centres.
The government devises methods to promote and increase access to renewable
energy including subsidies (e.g. propane gas etc.). The Bureau of Mines and Energy
(BME) benefits from capacity strengthening to enable it to better implement the
government’s energy programmes and strategies. The cost of all forms of energy,
however, remains high.
Considerable pressure continues to be exerted on wood resources (wood energy)
and oil import trends remain the same.
Energy needs grow while some electricity plants, particularly the hydroelectric
plants lose capacity due to dredging of rivers and sand erosion from lakes.
Energy needs are responsible for emitting 156.77 Gg of CO 2
(UNEP, 2008) as the
State increasingly turns to fossil energy sources (opening of three new thermal
plants in Port-au-Prince, Gonaïves and Cap Haïtien).
The government makes sound environmental management its priority and
advocates the enforcement of most of the environmental laws, decrees and
conventions which have been voted or signed.
- Marine and Coastal Environments
Protected coastal areas still do not exist in Haiti and nothing indicates that this will
change. Beaches are further polluted as activities on the coast are barely regulated
and like other areas on the coastal strip, extremely threatened by urban growth.
Haiti’s population is largely unaware of the need to preserve its coastal heritage.
- Water Resources
There are no provisions for the protection of water sources and catchment areas,
human settlements continue to grow there triggering the establishment of a
number of drinking water treatment businesses throughout the capital and other
major urban centres. Existing legislation is not enforced which results in escalating
pollution, especially of rivers by the dumping of industrial waste. Environmental
monitoring is unsubstantial and the small-scale measures implemented only
produce mixed results.