Tienne Dispensary Valley by Dror Yaron

GigapanMagazine.org  vol 3 issue 4

This panorama of the Artibonite Valley and surrounding mountains illustrates the beauty of Haiti and also some of its extremes — a lush valley contrasted with denuded mountaintops, mountainsides peppered with HTRIP tree plots versus untouched hills, a dirt mountain road that could wash out with the next storm versus paved roads found in Verrettes, the town that lies at the bottom of the hills. The poorest Haitians, who need the most help, live in the high mountains, and it is primarily these communities that the Haiti Timber Re-Introduction Project (HTRIP) aims to empower through agro-forestry. The environmental conditions in Haiti have a direct, negative impact on its people’s economic condition, their health and quality of life. In mountain communities, trees are crucial as they keep the topsoil in place.  During the rainy season, which can last for months, all of the topsoil runs off the mountains and into the Valley below.  Part of HTRIP's mission is to plant trees up in these elevations, with an emphasis on creating rock walls or canals in the earth, to deter further erosion.  If you look carefully, you can see a field fire burning in the distance, through which the farmers can reduce the stalks to ash so the nutrients can be absorbed into the soil, and which kills many of the pests, which might affect next year’s crops.