26578: Miles (Announce): National Conference on Haiti's Environment (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Melinda Miles <melinda@haitikonpay.org>

Dear Friends of Haiti,

At the end of September, Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY hosted nearly forty Haitians 
in Jacmel, Haiti, for a three day conference on the environment. The conference 
was an opportunity for Haitians from throughout the country to gather and share 
experience and knowledge and launch a national working group on the 
environment. KONPAY is excited to share the following summary report of the 
conference with you. If you are interested in learning more or getting 
involved, please don't hesitate to contact us, melinda@konpay.org.

For a green Haiti,

Joe Duplan and Melinda Miles
Co-Directors, KONPAY, www.konpay.org


Building a National Working Group on the Haitian Environment

Summary Report of the Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY Conference, September 2005



CONTENTS:
1.    Introduction

2.    Resolutions for a Green Haiti

3.    Resolution on Women

4.    Education and Training

5.    Carrying the Work Forward

6.    KONPAY Activities for National Environmental Initiative

7.    Get Involved!



1. Introduction

At the end of September, Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY hosted a three-day meeting in 
Jacmel, Haiti on the theme: How can we build a national working group on 
Haiti’s environment? Participants were recruited from strategic geographical 
areas and professional sectors. Forty Haitians from throughout Haiti arrived to 
share their experiences with environmental protection and rehabilitation and to 
contribute their ideas to this critically important topic.

A diversity of current initiatives on behalf of Haiti’s environment were 
represented, including national peasant movements, non-governmental 
institutions, small-community based organizations and groups working with 
international and church support. Among the participants were agronomists, 
agronomy technicians, a forestry engineer, community organizers, educators, 
anthropologists and people with years of on-the-ground experience.

KONPAY chose to use the Open Space method to facilitate the greatest possible 
exchange of ideas. Open Space gives participants the freedom to create an 
agenda that covers what is most important to them, based on the logic that 
passion creates motivation. As a result, the agenda of the meeting came from 
participants who are not only engaged in environmental work but feel the 
affects of Haiti’s environmental problems first-hand in their communities.

Major themes discussed during the conference include:
Poverty and environmental degradation
The importance of planting trees and preserving remaining forests;
Alternatives to charcoal;
Solutions for garbage and pollution;
Responsibilities of the government and lobbying the authorities;
Training, education and raising awareness;
The importance of women in environmental work;
Why a “konbit” (a community work group) on the environment; and
Carrying the work forward, collaboration and outreach.

2. Resolutions for a Green Haiti

Throughout the conference participants reaffirmed their consensus around one 
major goal: building a green Haiti. The focus of the conference was to create a 
new working group who will lead a national initiative toward this end. The 
first step was to bring leaders from diverse locations and backgrounds together 
and to create trust within the group. The conference allowed people the 
opportunity to get to know one another, begin to build connections, and to form 
consensus. The participants in the conference arrived at several points of 
unity:

1.    We need to take action now. We have to plant and protect trees. We need 
measures to conserve soil across the country. Where there are no irrigation 
systems, we must build them. Where there is the opportunity to transform 
agricultural products, we have to create the means for transformation. Where we 
have tourist spots we should develop eco-tourism and arts and crafts. We will 
take the initiative to create a national “konbit” (working group) for the 
environment with people from each of Haiti’s ten geographical departments.



2.    We will combat poverty. The environmental problems we are facing call us 
to create something more than an isolated movement; we have to work on the 
causes of poverty.


3.    Education and raising awareness are critical to efforts to save Haiti’s 
environment. Public education campaigns to inform the general public about 
environmental issues and community schools for peasant farmers should be 
established. People need to learn the importance of trees – educate the young 
people. Work should be done to raise awareness among charcoal producers of the 
alternatives to charcoal.


4.    The government must take its responsibility. It needs to make laws to 
conserve soil and protect trees. Measures have to be taken to find alternative 
systems for the owners of dry cleaning, bakeries and other businesses that use 
wood for fuel. The state should provide more resources and work harder to help 
people respond to the needs of the families. We will work together to pressure 
the government of Haiti to take its responsibility.



3. Resolution on Women

Considering the marginalization of women in Haiti’s society, juxtaposed with 
their integral role in agricultural and family life, the participants of the 
conference expressed the importance of empowering women to participate in the 
national working group.

We will include women in all of our meetings and assemblies.
We will help women free their minds from the instruction of inequality they 
learn from their families and society.
We will raise awareness with men so they can understand women, and with women 
so they can be integrated into all activities.

4. Education and Training

Participants in the conference were unanimous in their belief that education 
and training are critical elements in efforts to protect the environment. 
Education and training must be made available to the general population about 
the environment in which they live. This includes the means and methods for 
protecting their land, methods for recycling and composting, the importance of 
trees to people and soil, and the necessity of rotating crops to renew soil. 
Public service announcements should be ongoing and should be complimented with 
educational events that reach people in their homes, schools, churches and 
other community venues.

5. Carrying the Work Forward

As the conference drew to a close, participants tackled the question of how to 
follow up and continue the work that was started during the event. The group 
decided that each individual and his/her organization must share the results of 
the conference with his/her community. It was suggested that a follow-up 
conference be held in one year to include broader participation from national 
stakeholders in the environment. Also, a group was formed to review and 
organize conference results into a bound document for broad consumption of 
references on education, training, resources and the national initiative.

Why a konbit for Haiti’s environment?
Participants discussed the reason for choosing to create a konbit, or working 
group, as opposed to a national network or other more formal institution:
A konbit is a group of people who put their heads together for one goal because 
we are all aware, and we are all victims. If we want to save the environment, a 
konbit is the last card in the deck, and it’s time to play it. A konbit is the 
right philosophy, because the environment is the work of everyone. The 
environment is complex, so we need a team that includes agronomists, forestry 
engineers, women, and educators. We can have a group designated to keep contact 
and inform others of the work of the konbit, and local groups can help their 
communities get involved.


Participants agreed that because it  overlaps with KONPAY’s current activities, 
KONPAY should coordinate follow-up activities determined by the conference 
participants. Tasks include:
1.    Facilitate ongoing communication among participants.

2.    Conduct follow-up activities to achieve our long-term objective of an 
active, grassroots-based national working group for a green Haiti.

3.    Permit decentralization by visiting communities in remote rural areas and 
integrating them into the initiative.

4.    Coordinate and facilitate relationship building and training among 
participants.

5.    Keep a community calendar of events on  the internet.

6.    Encourage participants to stay engaged.

7.    Envision an action plan for the initiative, using input from entire 
working group.


6. KONPAY Activities for the National Environmental Initiative

Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY (Working Together for Haiti) strengthens existing 
organizations, builds national networks and creates relationships between 
individuals in the U.S. and Haiti. KONPAY focuses on Haitian solutions to 
environmental, social and economic problems and provides training and funding 
to grassroots and community-based projects.

In September KONPAY realized a long-term dream of bringing together Haitian 
environmentalists to strategize and plan a national initiative together. Over 
the next year, KONPAY will be coordinating follow-up activities on the 
conference and preparing for a larger, national conference next year. This work 
will happen on several levels.

First, KONPAY will catalogue existing efforts on the environment. KONPAY will 
solicit information from organizations that can be accessed via internet or 
phone and will conduct site visits to remote areas around the country. Staff 
will visit villages in each geographical department to meet with local 
environmental leaders. With the information gathered, KONPAY will begin to 
build a library of organizations, cooperatives, and other initiatives for the 
environment around the country. The entries for each effort will include 
information about what resources they have and what they need. This directory 
will be available on the internet. In addition, KONPAY will begin building a 
library of information and articles on the environment in Creole to be 
available both online and for hard copy distribution in more remote areas.


The second aspect of the effort is direct assistance to projects throughout the 
country. This assistance will sometimes be funding for a tree nursery or other 
project. Whenever possible KONPAY will link existing efforts to utilize 
resources already available. For example, KONPAY is working now to put a new 
group in Hatte-Granmont (Artibonite) in touch with the project in Gros Morne, 
which is large enough to offer training and seedlings to Hatte-Granmont. KONPAY 
has hired an agronomist, Claudy Pierre, and will soon be bringing on another 
agronomist, Carlot Oscar, to work as a team offering diverse training to groups 
throughout the country. Claudy and Carlot will offer technical support to 
projects and conduct outreach for building the national konbit on the 
environment, as well.



KONPAY will keep September conference participants engaged by coordinating 
their outreach efforts for the konbit on the environment, visiting their 
projects and offering support wherever possible. KONPAY will work with 
participants to find new groups and to hold regional Open Space meetings to 
begin determining regional and national agendas on the environment. As the 
months progress, a small team will begin planning a second national conference.



Participants in the conference were quick to point out that the problems in 
Haiti's environment are intertwined with the crushing poverty the majority of 
the population lives in. KONPAY hopes that a triple threat of direct 
assistance, training/popular education, and national organizing will have 
immediate, short term benefits, as well as long-term results, especially for 
rural families who cannot find enough food to eat. All of KONPAY’s 
environmental work is based on the principle that there are five areas that 
require simultaneous attention in order for any environmental efforts to 
succeed: (1) Tree planting and reforestation, (2) irrigation and potable water, 
(3) soil conservation and renewal, (4) alternatives to charcoal, and (5) family 
level food security.



7. Get Involved!



KONPAY and the National Working Group on the Environment are committed to the 
principles of Open Space, including “The people who come are the people who are 
supposed to be there.” If you feel called to participate in building a greener 
Haiti, you are welcome to join us! Here are some ways to get involved:



1.    Suggest projects, individuals, institutions, or locations to be included 
in the national directory of environmental projects.

2.    Send articles for the new Creole library on the environment! Creole is 
preferred, but we’ll accept articles in English and French as well.

3.    Volunteer to help translate materials from English and French into 
Creole.

4.    Contact KONPAY to get more deeply involved, Melinda@konpay.org.

5.    Make a donation to help support these efforts. Your funding will be put 
to work immediately! Here is how your funding might be used:



$ 50                           Equipment grant for community group

$100                           Scholarship to cover one participant in an 
in-country exchange

$150                           Monthly salary for part-time KONPAY 
agronomist/organizer

$200                           Community-wide education campaign

$250                           Travel/stipend for trainers and community 
educators

$450                           Community training session (includes stipends, 
travel, materials)

$1000                           Regional Open Space Meeting and Training

$1,500+                  Direct assistance to a community project