Konbit Pou Ayiti

Wholistic strategies to protect and renew watersheds are central to the environmental movement’s efforts. Haiti KONPAY’s current programs in the Jacmel watershed are a perfect example.

Planting at the Top to Protect the Bottom

Cyvadier, where KONPAY has its office and the JDS central tree nursery, sits on the coastal floodplain just to the east of Jacmel. Many families have agricultural gardens on the steep cliffs of the mountains because the plain itself is narrow. At the top of the mountain is the village of Cap Rouge, and in Cap Rouge is the largest of the new ravines formed by flooding and mud slides during the 2008 storms.

Baie d’Orange, Haiti is a place few people knew of even before deaths from starvation were reported there in November 2008. As you know, Haiti was hit by four powerful storms in August and September, including two hurricanes. Baie d’Orange is less than a two-hour drive from KONPAY’s office in Cyvadier.

The Youth for the Development of Cyvadier (JDS) is a popular program that keeps growing. In 2008, the project received a donation to move onto its own piece of land. We constructed a depot and a kitchen for cooking up Saturday lunches. Children and young adults come on a rotating schedule to volunteer, learn together and enjoy a meal each Saturday morning.

Last year the project suffered some losses during the hurricane season,
but with the support of their generous partners at Global Village in
Peoria, IL, JDS has bounced back.

Haiti KONPAY is currently working with the Environmental Law Institute to develop training for judges in the insular Caribbean about environmental law. The program emphasizes biodiversity conservation, and for that reason it covers three key countries in a Caribbean biodiversity corridor: Haiti, the Dominican Republic and Jamaica.

Two days after Mardi Gras and I am feeling pretty normal. I haven’t had to accompany our delegates to any late night street fun or any ceremonies, so my state is not altered by sleep deprivation, drumming and rum.

Two things that I most enjoy doing are extra special in Haiti: sitting still and sleeping. Sitting still to listen to the sun and wind and trees, and sleeping because here in Haiti my sleep is fathoms deep.