Haiti – Dominican Republic - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

trade of natural resources, local level tensions,and an encroachment on Dominican land byundocumented Haitian migrants looking foreconomic opportunities. For these reasons, bothgovernments requested UNEP to conduct anassessment of the border zone in order to identifykey priorities for stabilizing the present situation andneeds, in order to secure development goals.ObjectivesThe objectives of the assessment and this reportare:1. To identify how the use of natural resourcesand environmental degradation in the borderzone are contributing to disaster vulnerability,conflict risks related to the conflicting use ofnatural resources, poverty and unsustainablepractices, as well as how resource dependentlivelihoods are responding to thesechallenges.2. To present an analysis on key environmentalissues and trends, as well as underlying drivingforces to contribute to determine the potentialpolitical, social, stability and developmentimplications.3. To provide practical recommendations forthe two governments and their internationalpartners to continue the work on mitigatingthe identified risks, capitalize on the opportunities,increase transboundary environmentalcooperation, and strengthen the resilience tosources of vulnerability.1.3 Assessment processGeographical scopeThe geographical scope of the assessmentconcerned the full length of the border zone,approximately 380 km from north to south. Ingeneral, this can be defined as a band stretchingapproximately 10-20 km on both sides of the actualborder, depending upon available infrastructure,water courses, topography and the level oftransboundary interactions between communities.Some of the key issues identified in the border zonefurthermore proved to be so tightly connected tonational scale challenges in the two countries thatthe assessment team felt obliged to upscale theanalysis from border zone to national level.Assessment methodologiesThere are no standardized methodologies forassessing transboundary challenges of thekind found in the border zone. Neither has acomprehensive analysis of the zone ever beenconducted. In the absence of a methodologicalor comparative model, the assessment teamdesigned its own framework based on relevantliterature i and methods and then adapted it tothe reality on the ground.The methodology adopted by the assessmentteam also acknowledged the growing concernamong national stakeholders and donors thatthe limited financial resources available for workon the border zone should be used to encouragepractical action rather than further quantitativebaseline studies. As a result, the methodologicalapproach used in this report did not allow forextensive collection of new quantitative data. Theapproach, then, was essentially exploratory andrelied on various sources of both qualitative andquantitative data, as well as anecdotal evidencecollected during field missions. This allowed theteam to reach the objectives of the assessment,while making the best possible use of the availableresources, and remaining flexible and responsiveto the realties they faced on the ground.In order to have confidence in the collectedqualitative data, and the analysis and conclusionsdrawn from it, the data was triangulated. 2 Theuse of this research technique, also known asmethodological triangulation, ensures that no conclusioncan be drawn from a single source withoutcorroboration by others. 3 Therefore, only wheninterviews with members of the public on bothsides of the border, accounts from governmentauthorities, field observations and/or secondarydata sources pointed in the same direction, couldthe assessment team draw conclusions on keyissues, drivers and trends with a sufficient level ofconfidence.Data was collected from:• formal reports and surveys containing existingdata (both qualitative and quantitative) .i Literature included general literature on environment,natural resource management and development, reportsemerging from work elsewhere in Haiti and the Dominicanrepublic, as well as studies made on specific issues in theborder zone.Haiti – Dominican Republic: Environmental challenges in the border zone13