Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Haiti: The Society and Its Environment
is also the primary source of water used by most Haitians for
domestic household needs. In general, groundwater is significantly
underused for both household use and irrigation. The
use of groundwater for irrigation is mostly limited to the Plaine
du Cul-de-Sac.
Forestry and FueSwood
There is a paucity of current data on forest cover. The most
reliable national data are based on aerial photographs dating
back to 1978. However, the United Nations Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO) has made some estimates based on
the rate of deforestation prevalent in the late 1980s (see Forestry,
ch. 8) In general, Haiti's forest cover is fast disappearing
.
because of the press of people on the land, the clearing of land
for food production, growth in the demand for construction
material, and the harvest of fuelwood. In the case of many tree
species, only a few relic stands of natural forest remain.
Several important stands of mangrove forest can be found in
Haiti's coastal areas and estuaries. The most notable pine tract
is the pine forest of the Massif de la Selle, a 28,000-hectare tract
of state land that has been severely disturbed by illicit wood
harvest and agricultural incursions. Much of Haiti was originally
covered by broadleafed forest. Important stands remain
in the northern region of Le Borgne-Anse-a-Foleur and around
Pic de Macaya. Semi-arid forest, indicated by natural stands of
mesquite, is found near the Etang Saumatre and around Grand
Gosier and Cotes de Fer. Natural stands of arid-land scrub,
characterized by cactus, succulents, and thorny shrubs, are
found between in the Savane Desolee between Gonaives and
Anse Rouge.
In the sixteenth century, forests of various types covered
much of the island of Hispaniola although some observers estimate
that less than half of Haiti was then covered by merchantable
forest. Haiti exported precious woods throughout the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and was for a time the
largest exporter of logwood in the hemisphere. In addition,
Haiti exported considerable quantities of mahogany, Spanish
cedar, and lignum vitae. Since at least the 1940s, significant
wood product shortages and growing wood imports have been
reported. Perhaps 8 percent of the territory was covered by natural
forest in 1954.
Reliable national data from 1978 indicated that only 6.4 percent
of the country was covered by forest—roughly one-third
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