As part of the fight against deforestation in Haiti, the use of alternative renewable energy sources is a priority of the Minister of the Environment, Jean-François Thomas. Among the various activities already implemented, the distribution of kerosene stoves is an important element.

Through a pilot project, funded by the European Union (EU), established by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) through the Project for the delimitation and establishment of the Biological Corridor in the Caribbean (UNEP CBC / EU), 500 kerosene stoves were distributed the previous week on the island of La Gonâve. Recall that on October 31, 2013, the Ministry of Environment had already proceeded on the island, to an initial distribution of 500 stoves double and single homes.

In this distribution, the agronomist Nobert Dechanel Representative of Project CBC UNEP/EU, stated in a interview that 80% of the Haitian population using wood or charcoal for cooking which favors the erosion of topsoil, reduces crop yields and increases drought "we must go to the source to determine the fundamental and occasional causes of this pressing and urgent problem in order to propose alternatives to charcoal and firewood. Deforestation of the country does not date from today and we are paying the consequences every day. We have to do something positive for the well-being of future generations [...]"

While recognizing that deforestation in the country is linked to the production and mass consumption of wood and charcoal, Engineer Astrel Joseph stressed "While charcoal production is an element that contributes to deforestation in Haiti

but now it is a matter of supply and demand [...] if we reduce coal consumption by promoting alternative sources of energy more economical and easily accessible, the demand for charcoal and production will decrease proportionately. Hence, the importance of the distribution of kerosene stoves to send a clear signal to the existence of alternatives."

It is in this perspective that the Ministry of Environment supported by UNEP is currently implementing in collaboration with the organization German Agro Action, through the Tri-National Bureau of Project CBC UNEP/EU, the project "Reducing the pressure on biodiversity through the promotion and development of renewable energy in the area of ​​Dosmond" (funded by the EU), in which there is in addition to the component of distribution of economic stoves, the construction among others, of a center for bio-gas as an alternative energy source.

HL/ TB/ HaitiLibre