Environmental Destruction, Chaos Bleeding Across Haitian Border

MALPASSE, Haiti — In October, three Haitian men were shot dead and a fourth was wounded just across the Dominican Republic border from this dusty and impoverished town.

The men were gunned down, investigators say, by vigilantes or a rival criminal group for cutting down trees for charcoal. The remains of the three dead men were found burned inside the very furnaces they were using to produce Haiti’s most sought-after fuel.

The episode was the most violent recent confrontation between people along the border and a sign of worsening tensions, with Haiti’s environmental problems sprawling into the Dominican Republic. The spread of deforestation, land degradation and erosion across the border is the surest sign yet that Haiti’s ecology is being pushed to its limits.

“The incursions into Dominican territory are creating pressure,” said Max Antoine, director of Haiti’s border development commission. “The Haitians are creating pressure on their land, creating pressure on their economic space. … It’s a competition between the Haitians and the Dominicans.”

Haiti has lost 98 percent of its forests to destructive land use, mainly from the clear-cutting of trees for charcoal production. As vegetation disappears from Haiti, an illegal market for charcoal from the Dominican side is exploding.

The Dominican Republic long ago banned the production of charcoal to protect its forests and began subsidizing propane to wean its population from fuel wood. But that has not stopped desperate Haitians from risking their lives for more charcoal, which provides more than 60 percent of their nation’s energy.

NY Times