In Haiti, though, hurricanes are becoming more frequent and unpredictable. In 2008, the summer before the earthquake, Haiti endured four tropical storms in a row. Our fourth largest city, Gonaives, was inundated for months.
It is not just the strength and frequency of rain, but the particular vulnerability of Haitian terrain. The same storms can pound the neighbouring Dominican Republic, or nearby Jamaica, and do far less damage. Haiti is almost completely denuded of trees, with less than 2% of its original forest cover still standing. So when storms hit, landslides almost invariably occur, as the topsoil has few tree roots binding it together and holding it in place.
Haiti has been progressively losing its lush woodland ever since 1804, when the country was forced to start chopping down its old growth mahogany forests to help pay the "reparations" imposed by its former French colonialists following independence.
Another major assault on Haiti's forest cover came during the US occupation of the island, from 1915 to 1934. A policy of concentrating land ownership is believed to have resulted in large swathes of woodland being chopped down. Before the occupation, forest cover represented 60% of the total land surface in Haiti; by 1945, the figure had been reduced to 21%.
In modern times, poor small farmers in the countryside have continued the tree-cutting trend, desperately trying to clear new land to cultivate while earning a meagre living from selling charcoal between harvests. Read the full report here.
Source: Prospery Raymond, guardian.co.uk.
