Haiti – Dominican Republic - Disasters and Conflicts - UNEP

assessment team are all small scale, essentiallyclashes between individuals and smaller groups.On their own, they have a relatively low risk ofescalation at the local level. The main risk ofescalation comes from such cases inflamingexisting tensions at the national level, triggeringwider conflict perhaps driven by the media orescalated for political motives. This risk shouldnot be under-estimated, as perceived injusticesin individual cases can have powerful triggeringeffects where tensions are already high, even if thetwo situations are otherwise unrelated.The most serious economic risk is presented bythe flooding of Lake Azuei and Lake Enriquillo, asthis has in the past closed the border temporarilyand may do so again, with serious economicconsequences to Haiti and significant but lesserimpacts on the Dominican Republic. This is notan instability risk per se, on the contrary the crisiswould probably force co-operation between thetwo countries. Nonetheless an extended closureof the Malpas border would be very economicallydamaging for Haiti and this damage might in turntrigger instability.Positive developments: There are some clear positivetrends, including reforestation programmes,transboundary cooperation and increased binationaltrade in the border zone. The most positiveaspect of the Dominican-initiated reforestationactivities, including the Frontera Verde / MPPinitiative, is that it builds on a model of reforestationthat has been tested and proven to work over anumber of years in the Dominican Republic. Inaddition, many of the identified transboundarycooperation and trade initiatives are owned andled by local people, and are cost-effective and soit should be economically viable to support andimprove them without depending on aid.9.3 Identification of underlyingdriving forcesThe 20 identified key issues do not have 20 differentcauses. On the contrary, the many different issuesare considered to be linked to or manifestations ofonly four closely interlinked driving forces:1. Haitian poverty, food insecurity and underdevelopment.2. Environmental degradation, in particular on theHaitian side of the border.3. Weak governance.4. Haiti-Dominican Republic economic andresource inequalities.Table 3 summarizes how the identified key issuesare linked to the four identified underlying drivingforces.1) Haitian poverty, food insecurityand under-developmentThese are considered to be the core drivingforces for virtually all of the issues noted. Thedriving forces manifest themselves particularlywhen looking at the high dependence onsubsistence agriculture combined with highpopulation growth in the area and underdevelopmentin the energy sector.Maintaining an adequate and sustainablelivelihood from subsistence farming is a challengein all countries: in Haiti it is now close toimpossible. This is due to a combination of: a)very high rural population density (estimated atover 250/km 2 ) with a population that is growingmuch faster than the average of the country,resulting in very small land holdings; b) moderateto low quality soils, that have been furtherdegraded as a result of man-made activities;and c) insufficient agricultural investments andinputs. The net result is that rural families cannotgenerate an adequate livelihood or growsufficient food from their own landholdings.Without education and other employmentopportunities, artisanal farming families arecaught in a poverty and food insecuritytrap.This combination of land shortages, povertyand labor surplus generates a large andmobile rural labour force. The people in thatlabour force have negligible capital and arecontinually looking for livelihood opportunitiesaway from their own landholdings – both inHaiti and across the border. In the borderzone, the available jobs are all relativelyunskilled, low paid, highly insecure, and oftenenvironmentally destructive. The list of themincludes sharecropping, farm laboring, coastalfishing, fuel wood harvesting and charcoalproduction.Haiti – Dominican Republic: Environmental challenges in the border zone97