Haiti: Environmental degradation
The scrubby green mountains welcoming a visitor to Haiti tell it all.
From the ground, they throw cool shadows over the Caribbean and cities like Port-au-Prince, a mirage of lushness. But from an airplane, the green gives way to deep, sand-colored gouges of erosion and a mediterranean sparseness unsuited to this tropical island.
Less obvious are the dozens of environmental projects that have sprung up in recent years. Some, like a four-year, $30 million natural resource project sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development, are massive. Others, like the tiny tree nurseries sprouting atop the mountainside community of Buteau, about 60 miles south of Port- au-Prince, are minuscule.
But increasingly, environmentalists are looking at grassroots conservation, rather than government-sponsored efforts, as the key to Haiti's future. They criticize the Haitian government and the international community for not doing enough, and......
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