16662: (Arthur) Activist group questions support for new Haitian industrial free zone (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

Caribbean Update:
http://www.caribupdate.com/HAITI Sept 05 Industrial free zone.htm

Activist group questions support for new Haitian industrial free zone
Posted Friday September 05, 2003

LONDON: The British-based Haiti Support Group wants a new industrial free
zone near the Haitian town of Ouanaminthe close to the border with the Dominican
Republic to be scrapped because of major environmental concerns that it says
will eventually worsen the plight of the people there.

The Haiti Support Group, an activist non-government organization, is
questioning why the World Bank is supporting the new free zone.

Since April 2002, when the presidents of Haiti and the Dominican Republic
announced plans to construct a new industrial zone on 200 acres of agricultural
land on the Maribahoux Plain in north-east Haiti, civil society organizations
have been protesting against it.

Opponents of the zone say the site is not only one of the most fertile
agricultural regions in the whole of Haiti, but is also adjacent to environmentally
vulnerable border zones.

“These objections have been ignored by the Haitian government, and now it
appears that they are being ignored by the World Bank's International Finance
Corporation (IFC),” The Haiti Support Group said in a press statement Friday.

The IFC is preparing to lend the Dominican apparel company, Group M, US$3
million specifically to help it build garment assembly factories on the
Maribahoux Plain.

In August the first factory opened, and villagers from the surrounding area
have begun to arrive in the main town, Ouanaminthe, in search of employment.

“There is already talk of a housing shortage. With no regulation or planning,
the growth of shanty-town developments is inevitable,” the Group said.

“The predictable result of this unregulated urban explosion will be a further
reduction in the amount of land available for food production; a massive
increase in the felling of trees for charcoal production; and a destructive
accumulation of untreated human and commercial waste,” it said.

The Group’s concerns have been voiced as the Sixth Conference of Parties to
the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) wraps up in
Havana.

In July, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned that more than 3.8
million people are short of food in Haiti. The UNCCD has already flagged the
Haiti/Dominican Republic border zone as an area vulnerable to desertification.