Conservationists in Haiti are helping to restore mangroves and through that effort, protect marine ecosystems and build a more sustainable income for fishers.
Between 2000 and 2016, human activity was the primary driver of global mangrove area loss, with urbanization being a key factor. In Haiti, the total mangrove area decreased from 16,462 hectares in 1996 to 14,759 hectares in 2016.
Jean Wiener, executive director of the Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine explains that that he and his team are active in Haiti’s northern ThreeBays Protected Area, which at over 75,000 hectares, constitutes Haiti’s second largest declared marine protected area.
“Mangroves serve as nurseries for fish and other sea life, protect the coast from erosion from storms, protect coral reefs from siltation, sequester carbon, produce oxygen at rates higher than rain forests,” he says, adding that the NGO is training rangers, doing mangrove and reef rehabilitation, environmental education and a range of other activities aimed at generating alternative livelihoods for local coastal communities.
“We are undertaking some research to monitor anthropogenic impacts, and to continue to determine the best locations to develop marine protected areas, but our main work is with local coastal communities and providing them with the knowledge, skills, and opportunities to protect their resources while still making a living,” he says, adding that they are also engaging in apiculture, ecotourism and helping fishers exchange unsustainable and potentially illegal gear for better ones.
“Research is necessary and great to undertake, but we are in the middle of a house fire and we need to put the fire out as quickly as possible, not sit around and continue to examine the situation while the house is burning down around you,” he says, “We have the knowledge and the skills on how to put out the fire; we just need the resources.”
In 2014, Wiener won a Whitely Gold Award and in 2023 received £100,000 (about $134,000) in continuation funding for stabilizing futures through marine and coastal management over two years.
Growing Up in Haiti
Wiener grew up in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, but his family would often go to the beaches along the southern coast.
“I was always in the water: snorkel masks had just become really popular along with fins and I was face down snorkeling for pretty much the entire time we were at the beach,” he says, “I was examining every detail of the reef and its fishes in front of our favorite beach for hours at a time.”
Wiener explains that over the years, he observed a decrease in the amount of fish in the area, a degradation of his favorite reef, and an increase in marine pollution.
“This is when I decided that I wanted to protect these invaluable resources,” he says.
Wiener explains that scientists from the Global South have the unique perspective and a deep understanding of the “what” and “why” of what is happening around them.
“Having been brought up in Haiti and later educated in the US, I have an important perspective which encompasses one of the richest and one of the poorest countries in the world,” he says, “I can and do easily understand the views, concepts, experiences, and expectations of probably the broadest spectrum of these two societies as they relate to conservation and protection of natural resources.”
Another group of conservationists, this time in southern Haiti, are helping communities and restoring mangroves in order to help climate adaption and increase biodiversity.
Guy Cezil, an engineer-agronomist and a member of a local organization called the Marbial’s Sons and Friends Association (AFAM in French) has been working at Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) on an ecosystem-based adaptation project in the Nippes department in the south of Haiti.
Cezil says that there are two projects being implemented in the southern peninsula of Haiti to protect coastal and marine biodiversity by strengthening the resilience of ecosystems, particularly mangroves.
“Putting ecosystems in good health to provide equitable ecosystem services is the project’s main challenge, given the socio-economic vulnerability of the target communities, which are dependent on the natural resources available daily and require long-term economic support,” he says adding that in addition to the ecological restoration of watersheds and mangroves, the aim is to improve the livelihoods of farmers and fishermen throughout the green economy (agriculture and forestry) and blue economy (fisheries and marine value chains).
“Ecosystem-based adaptation implies the use of biodiversity and ecosystem services as part of a comprehensive adaptation strategy to help people adapt to the negative effects of climate change,” he says, adding that 385 community members were trained in natural resource management and 45 fishers were trained in sustainable fishing techniques.
