23695: (pub) Arthur - MPP delegation in Brazil (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Tttnhm@aol.com

A green balm for Haiti's strife
By Charlotte Eimer, BBC Monitoring


Haiti's reconstruction is top of the agenda for 19 Latin American countries
at this week's annual talks of the Rio Group of Nations, in Brazil.

Meanwhile, an award-winning environmental group from Brazil is busy preparing
to send staff to the storm-battered country in January.

Brazil heads the UN peacekeeping mission in Haiti. But political unrest and
rising violence are just some of the problems facing the Caribbean island.

The Institute for Permaculture and Ecovillages of the Savannah (Ipec)
believes Brazil is well-placed to provide more than just military assistance,
Brazilian media report.

Deforestation

Intense deforestation has left Haiti particularly vulnerable to heavy rains.

The hills and mountains have been stripped of trees - leaving nothing to hold
back water.

In October, Tropical Storm Jeanne left more than 2,000 dead and many more
homeless.

Earlier this year flash floods killed another 2,000 people in the Western
hemisphere's most densely-populated nation.

According to the latest World Bank assessment, Haiti needs $1.37bn in urgent
financial aid.

But in a recent interview, Haitian Prime Minister Gerard Latortue rebuked the
international community.

Insecurity in the capital, Port-au-Prince, was being used as an excuse to
delay the sending of funds, he said.

'No money'

Poverty-stricken peasants are cutting down the island's few remaining trees
to scratch a living selling charcoal.

Now a group of 10 Haitians from the Papaye Peasant Movement (PPM) has come to
Brazil to study sustainable agricultural and architectural techniques at the
Ipec centre in Pirenopolis, 160 km (100 miles) from the capital, Brasilia.

This is the third time Ipec has hosted representatives from the movement,
which is one of the strongest grass-roots groups in Haiti, with some 200,000
members.

Their goal is to set up a similar Living and Learning Centre in the Western
Caribbean to teach permaculture, village economy, sustainable technologies,
ecological building and co-operation to restore the endangered ecosystems.

The solutions taught at the Ipec centre include taking advantage of rain
water, recycling waste and building houses made of super-adobe.

They are cheap to implement - a crucial factor in the poorest nation in the
Western hemisphere.

"We want information," a Haitian visitor told Rio de Janeiro newspaper Jornal
do Brasil.

"We cannot think about traditional processes," agricultural engineer Accene
Joachim said.

"There is no money for that."

Dry toilets

The visitors hope to return to Haiti armed with techniques to reconstruct the
nation and educate the population.

One of the many environmental challenges is the need to rebuild the original
vegetation, reduced to a mere 2%.

This loss of vegetation has caused changes in the rain rate and a reduction
in native flora and fauna.

Decades of deforestation have also set in motion a process of desertification
and erosion.

One of the tasks for Haitian group member Marie-Lucie Adolph will be to
convey basic hygiene concepts to rural communities.

She will be responsible for distributing dry toilets, which is a cheap
solution to deal with human waste.

This technology does away with the need for drains and pipes, and uses only
dry organic material such as sawdust.

A by-product of the system is the production of high-quality humus for
agricultural use.

The possibility of catching rain water has also caught the attention of
agricultural engineer Vernat Supreme.

Many Haitians are forced to drink from contaminated wells and rivers while
pure rain water is being wasted.

Another agricultural engineer told of his excitement on seeing the Ipec
ecovillage - a sustainable human development designed to create a peaceful and
healthy environment.

"I have never seen anything like it," Augustin Sylvestre said.

He will be involved in the planning of the Haitian version, taking into
account local topography and natural resources.



Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/3979453.stm