Deforestation In Haiti

Words: 1140
Pages: 5

Introduction
In Haiti, there have been multiple horrible hurricanes throughout time. Starting in 1998, hurricane George killed about 400 people and destroyed about 80% of the crops in Haiti. There were multiple deaths and injuries that Haiti were not prepared for. The next huge hurricanes were hurricane Fay, Gustav, Hanna, and Ike. These all hit in less than one month in 2008. This was very devastating for Haiti, 800,000 people were affected and over 800 people were killed. The towns were ruined, leaving 22,702 destroyed homes. Another hurricane that Haiti wasn’t prepared for, was hurricane Sandy in 2012. All of these hurricanes left Haiti very poor, they could barely recover and still haven’t completely. They do not have proper access to food,
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By removing all of those trees it weakened the ground. Without the roots from those trees keeping the ground stable and strong the soil was much more susceptible to the hurricane’s power. This made the ground weaker and increased the risk of a major hurricane exponentially. Based on our research we found that this deforestation made the effects of the 2008 hurricanes much worse. Trees could have helped stop the force of the hurricane and reduced damage. In more of our research if the trees were never cut down and the 2008 hurricanes weren’t as dangerous the 2010 hurricanes could have been prevented completely or at least been not as …show more content…
In 1923, 60% of the land in Haiti was forested and in 2006, less than 2% of the land was forested. Deforestation accelerated so quickly because of environmentally unsound agricultural practices, a rapid increase in population, and increased competition over the land. Even though most of the forested land was chopped down, Haiti could still use the remaining 2% of forested land for farmland, ranches, plantations, and more factories. Also, Haiti heavily relies on imports from other countries, resulting in a low GDP. Since they spend most of their money on imports, they can’t afford to make seawalls and relief programs. The first goal of my research is to find out which imports they rely the most on. By figuring this out, I can determine what they do and do not produce and why. The second goal of my research is to figure out what crops would not perish and could be distributed amongst the people of Haiti. Another goal of my research is to find out why they use unstable agricultural techniques and how we could improve those skills. Finally, I want to research the costs of creating new farms and