[WATCH IN 1080p]
I guess this presentation is going to serve as a means
to just provide a general review of what was presented in the proposal
The working title for now is we’ve chosen “Trees for Health:
A Comparative Analysis of Community Development through Agroforestry
and the outline for today
We’re going to start with the opening statements, get into the background information,
then the components of the study,
then we will end off with some expected outcomes of this study.
So first, sources of funding for this project so far are from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Which allows me to study here for the next five years
and for the winter break I was lucky enough to obtain the Engaged Cornell grant
so that should be a great experience
I want to start off with this image right here.
This is me, four years old in Haiti
I grew up in the city of Carrefour, Haiti
That’s just me, not knowing where I’ll be in 20 years
Here I am now in a completely different environment of Haiti
20 years later
What is interesting here is I never experienced the countryside while I lived in Haiti
I came here at five years old
So I didn’t get a chance to even do that
But I say this because it is relevant because my perception of Haiti,
ironically, has been shaped by the media and how it portrays it here in the United states
So growing up here I didn’t have Haitian Friends, not that [many] at least
and none back home for sure
And so whatever I saw on TV really kind of shaped my perspective
And whenever I went back home, which was every summer,
During those 10 years (within 5 years old and through high school)
I always stayed in the city
So in a way I was always influenced by this really slum-like, degraded area
I never thought I would be going back 20 years later
And what this trip did
It kind of reinforced
I’m back here, Bachelor’s in Ecology
What am I going to do with this degree?
And what am I going to do in grad school?
So this trip, I visited a southern region of Haiti called Les Cayes
It just kind of confirmed my interest to go back home
and really see what I can do as a natural resource professional
To help the environment but also help the people
Which is also important in order to help the environment
Moving on, back to how the media influenced me
So here I am as an Ecology major
I finally get the idea “Hey! Let me see if I can find some positive images.”
And low and behold!
Of course when you look at positive articles of Haiti
there are these images that portray some of the sights in the region
And I will say that the top left picture is actually the last 2% of the forest cover that is always being mentioned in these articles
It is called ‘Foret de Pins’ and I am probably saying it wrong and it is located in the southern region of the country
The bottom two images kind of mimic what you’ll probably see in most of the region
Although very green, there are portions of Haiti that are still really undeveloped, and therefore maintain these really green [sights]
So I think it will be important to also bring into the idea that the landscape
75% of it is comprised of mountainous regions
I’ll say about a quarter of it is the city region that is very low-lying
And let’s say about half of the population, which is currently at 11 million
[Perhaps] a little bit more
lives in these mountainous regions
I think it is important to consider those things as the context of this study will be within those regions
Back to the media
When you google Haiti, the first recommended site is the Central Intelligence Agency,
and their opening sentence is “currently the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere”
and in my opinion I believe that this phrase is overused although true
I do think it is something that needs to be changed
and I do also believe that because Haiti is so close to the United States,
It is perhaps the only country that (distance wise) has been dealing with such issues
all year round and since its independence
Relevant articles that have been published recently note that deforestation is a severe issue
and that it continues to be linked to poverty
And I do want to point out that the top left image is actually
the most accurate depiction of what the mountain landscapes look like today
Upon visiting, I drove for about 12 hours 
And that was for the most part
What I saw everywhere
However, when you do fly into Port-Au-Prince, this is what you see
It is really a bleak sight to see; 
you just see [various] landforms with no trees;
It is unfortunate because as always,
flying into Haiti when I vacationed back home with my family
This is what I saw
Of course, we can’t forget this image
This the popular NatGeo image that came out I think in the late 80s
That really put Haiti’s deforestation problem out there
Because you can see a distinct line of [tree cover] between the Dominican Republic and Haiti,
although they share the same island or 
the border is right there
I did highlight in the proposal that one of the possible historical reasons could be
that during a certain presidential era
They asked that sections of the border be cleared
[In order for it to be patrolled more easily]
Some of these articles are very recent
In fact in the past two months
I do believe that this thesis project is fitting well with today’s news and recent news
and I think that is has potential to be high impact considering these interests
(Committee member)
And one last statistic I wanted to look at [is] that almost two thirds of the population depends on agriculture
So we got this image going on
Most of the landscape [are] mountain regions. A lot of them or eroded or pretty much treeless.
So how is it that these populations are able to survive on agriculture?
This must be an issue
And so I want to focus in on this region of Haiti called Latibonite, Haiti
It has a population of about two million,
[perhaps] more now
It is the largest province in the country
But it is also one of the most degraded and eroded regions
and [in the past] it was considered the rice basket of the country
The low-lying valley region is where most of the country’s rice is produced
Unfortunately during the post-earthquake- Clinton era, the [local] rice market kind of crashed due to certain events
Before we get into the components of the actual thesis
I want to start with this quote that I think has stuck with me since I’ve found it
It is by Richard Rogers who is a British architect, and it says:
“The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment, is to get everybody involved”
And I think this is really relevant.
And it makes sense
If people aren't involved within the environment that they live in
[A project] might not reach its full potential
This leads us to Haiti Friends
Which is the organization that I will be partnering with
I want to just get a brief overview of the actual organization
There is a long-standing charity hospital,
Hospital Albert Schweitzer
that has been there since the 1950s
Haiti Friends was established in the late 1980s in order to fundraise for the hospital
But what they did not know was that they would receive a huge donation from a friend
That would ask them to focus on implementing some kind of forestry program
and what it is today is the Haiti Tree Reintroduction Program
What you see in the images here is just one cohort or a couple cohorts that came together for the actual shots
I want to also look at the bottom here
This is what we call a ‘konbit’
A konbit is a [Haitian] creole word that means coming together as a community
In trying to pursue a specific goal in hopes of helping each other
What they do here is go around on each other’s farms while getting trained and educated in agroforestry
All while also implementing it
What you see here to the right
Are just the nurseries that they have around the region and near the hospital
Moving onto the details of the agroforestry program
[Definition of Agroforestry- FAO]
Agroforestry is a major component of Haiti Friends
And this component was established in 2006 by a then PhD student from Berkley
Who now lives in Haiti and continues to do related work
The program focuses on the education and training in agroforestry in order to improve the livelihoods of those that it serves,
While also improving the ecology of their environment
Since 2006 there have been over 8,000 participants
They have all been trained and continue to implement agroforestry on their usual farming lands
There have been claims that there have been lower rates of mudslides and crop failure and increased crop yields
Whereas communities that are not participating seem to have the opposite effect
Moving on to the problem statement
Sprenkle suggests that Haiti’s development is inextricably linked its reforestation success
And I must note that I did gear towards her work because she was the PhD student that established this model
In the beginning I thought this was a big statement to make and  I did not quite agree with it
Until I delved deeper
And another paper mentioned that in developing countries, deforestation drives [severe] poverty
And that there are numerous benefits
But there seems to be an [inconsiderable] gap in its adoption in these countries
This is the case in Haiti.
How come a solution that can solve two of the major problems such as malnutrition and poverty
Actually three, and deforestation
is not being discussed, [and] not being implemented
And this is where natural resource professionals, should come in like myself and everyone here
and attempt to see how programs like HTRIP can be evaluated and see how it impacts the livelihoods of those that practice it
