Modern-Day Plague Deforestation is clearing Earth's forests on a massive scale, often resulting in damage to the quality of the land.

Forests still cover about 30 percent of the worlds land area, but swaths the size of Panama are lost each and every year. The worlds rain forests could completely vanish in a hundred years at the current rate of deforestation. Forests are cut down for many reasons, but most of them are related to money or to peoples need to provide for their families.The biggest driver of deforestation is agriculture. Farmers cut forests to provide more room for planting crops or grazing livestock. Often many small farmers will each clear a few acres to feed their families by cutting down trees and burning them in a process known as slash and burn agriculture. Logging operations, which provide the worlds wood and paper products, also cut countless trees each year. Loggers, some of them acting illegally, also build roads to access more and more remote forestswhich leads to further deforestation. Forests are also cut as a result of growing urban sprawl. Not all deforestation is intentional. Some is caused by a combination of human and natural factors like wildfires and subsequent overgrazing, which may prevent the growth of young trees. Deforestation has many negative effects on the environment. The most dramatic impact is a loss of habitat for millions of species. Seventy percent of Earths land animals and plants live in forests, and many cannot survive the deforestation that destroys their homes. Deforestation also drives climate change. Forest soils are moist, but without protection from sunblocking tree cover they quickly dry out. Trees also help perpetuate the water cycle by returning water vapor back into the atmosphere. Without trees to fill these roles, many former forest lands can quickly become barren deserts. Removing trees deprives the forest of portions of its canopy, which blocks the suns rays during the day and holds in heat at night. This disruption leads to more extreme temperatures swings that can be harmful to plants and animals. Trees also play a critical role in absorbing the greenhouse gases that fuel global warming. Fewer forests means larger amounts of greenhouse gases entering the atmosphereand increased speed and severity of global warming. The quickest solution to deforestation would be to simply stop cutting down trees. Though deforestation rates have slowed a bit in recent years, financial realities make this unlikely to occur. A more workable solution is to carefully manage forest resources by eliminating clear-cutting to make sure that forest environments remain intact. The cutting that does occur should be balanced by the planting of enough young trees to replace the older ones felled in any given forest. The number of new tree plantations is growing each year, but their total still equals a tiny fraction of the Earths forested land.

Overview of Social and Environmental Issues Once known as "The Pearl of the Antilles," Haiti has the unfortunate distinction of being one of the most environmentally degraded and poorest countries in the Western Hemisphere. As a result of a long history of unsustainable land use practices and a continuing dependence on trees for fuel wood and charcoal, less than 2% of the country's original forests remain. This is primarily due to people's dependence on fuel wood and charcoal for their cooking and heating needs. Deforestation is causing a decline in soil fertility, extensive flooding, and depleted groundwater supplies. Recent hurricanes have caused major destruction, not only from their winds, but from raging currents of water racing down the bare slopes. Forested mountains are now bald and lush landscapes are being overtaken by desertification. Much of the land can no longer support human life. Sadly, over 80% of the Haitian population lives in poverty and over 50% in abject poverty. The majority of people are unemployed and two-thirds of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods. With the degrading environment, their livelihoods continue to be threatened with little relief in sight. Ineffectual and corrupt governments have made development slow and stagnant. Social instability has plagued the country for decades. Since 2006, the UN peacekeeping force has been able to bring relative peace to the troubled country, despite occasional flare ups. However, Haiti still requires strong support from international organizations and donors in order to maintain stability and strive towards development.
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Gliricidia outplanting by PDI in Desarmes

Contour planting in Leogane

Leucaena barestem in Leogane

Our Response Trees for the Future has been working in Haiti since early 2002 supporting projects throughout the country. Our program focuses on addressing the country and communities most urgent needs. Working with local farmers and farming groups, we are planting trees to reforest degraded hillsides, produce sustainable charcoal and fuel wood, construction materials, food, produce biodiesel, and establish intensive hillside farming practices. On the ground, Haiti program Coordinator, Timote Georges, and his team of 10 local technicians are working effortlessly with communities throughout the country in the face of continuing challenges. Since 2008, we have set in motion a major program to reforest large portions of the Arcadine coast, particularly in the degraded mountains, les Chaines de Mattheux, in between Cabaret and St. Marc. Beginning in 2010, in partnership with the Yl-Foundation, we expanded our program to communities further North to Gonaves. The program, known as Yl-Vert, has established a central nursery in Gonaves and is working with communities in the surrounding mountains. In order to address immediate needs, TREES is implementing an agriculture program in which farmers are being trained in sustainable agriculture practices. They are receiving agriculture tools and seeds and have been able to produce significant amounts of food while developing the tree planting activities. Currently there are two TREES office and training centers one in Gonaves and the other in Leveque (Arcahaie).
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Program Update

May 2011 The Haiti program in 2011 is already off to a great start. Haiti Coordinator, Timote Georges, and his team of well trained agronomists and technicians are working effortlessly with farmers throughout the communities to organize trainings, establish nurseries, prepare fields and ensure this year will be a success. Along the Arcadine coast, TREES is working with over on thousand farmers in seventeen communities and will plant over one million trees by years end. This includes a program being developed in Medor in the Chaine des Cahos region in partnership with Our Lady Queen of Peace in Arlington, VA. Thanks to the partnership with the Timberland Company, TREESs Ylvert program in Gonaves is benefiting over one thousand, six hundred local farmers. The office and training center in Mapou Chevalier is complete and technicians are using the space to organize trainings in agroforestry and sustainable agriculture, composing, honey production, and holding classes for the new youth environmental education program. In addition to the central nursery, TREES is working with five rural communities and will plant over 1 million trees by the end of the year. The agriculture program has been a major success. Farmers have already benefited from the first year with harvests of beans, corn, sorghum, eggplants, melons and peppers. They are eager to increase and diversify the variety of agriculture seeds we are providing. As part of the agriculture program, farmers are expected to return at least 10% of their seed back to Trees for the Future in order to increase the seed bank.