17317: Severe: reply to Re: 17311 (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Constantin Severe <csevere@hotmail.com>

Hey,
This may seem like a daft question, but does Haiti have any commercial
logging operations whether private or government run? The reason I ask is,
with all the concern with deforestation, denuded hillside, mudslides,and
etc... it seems all the efforts to get people to move away from charcoal to
other types of fuel whether it they be solar cooker or propane(worthy though
they may be)  will take a long time to sway a population that is used to
using charcoal. From what I've seen of several past efforts to combat
deforestation is that just when the trees get to a reasonable size they get
poached by neighboring peasants and turned into charbon.
Starting a series of tree farms would allow those who want a greener Haiti
to use market forces to achieve their wider goal of reforestation. I know
here in Oregon, if someone wants to get some firewood from a national forest
all he has to do is go to a ranger station and pay a reasonable fee. In
Haiti with the inevitable governmental corruption issues it might be better
if a NGO or local ag co-op do it, but once its intial feasability and
utility was proven even individual farmers could it. There is a lot of land
in Haiti that makes marginial farmland but would be appropriate for fast
growing hard or softwoods, prefabably native species.

                                                               Constantin

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