Article Information
- ARTICLE_POSTED_BY: Marcel Wah
- ARTICLE_POSTED_ON: Jan 28, 2015
- Comments : 2
- Views : 887
- Likes : 1
- Category : Other
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Description :
PHOTO: SIMEON TROIMENE POSES FOR A PORTRAIT NEAR AQUIN, HAITI. SIMEON TROIMENE TOOK PART IN A REFORESTATION PROGRAM ORGANIZED BY UNDP. (PHOTO: UNDP HAITI)
- Website : http://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/ourwork/ourstories/reforestation-project-brings-life-and-growth-to-haitian-communit/
Overview
Troimène Siméon grows nostalgic as she looks out at the barren mountains surrounding the town of Aquin, in southern Haiti. A mother of one, she dreams of seeing Haiti as green as it once was.
“Reforestation is life,” says Troimène, one of a group of women working for a reforestation project in her home region. “By reforesting the mountains, water sources will be protected and that will prevent landslides.”
Rainfall often sparks major flooding and landslides, causing significant damage to the environment. Faced with this alarming situation, UNDP is supporting the Ministry of the Environment with key projects, including increasing the forest cover, which has declined from 60 percent to less than 2 percent today.
The programme for reducing vulnerability in the south, implemented by UNDP in partnership with government authorities, helped plant 5.5 million seedlings for the reforestation of 5,000 hectares in the watershed areas of Aquin and Saint-Louis. Women devoted to the environmental cause carry seedlings on their heads to the reforestation sites. Nearly 3,600 temporary jobs like Troimène’s were created, most of them benefiting women.