As part of their mission to protect, manage and restore the environment, the Ministry of the Environment and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have published the results of the second phase of "Mapping nature for people and the planet”, a project aimed at identifying essential life support areas in Haiti Essential Life Support Areas (ELSA).

The first phase of this project was launched in March 2021, with a proof of concept study reviewed by national experts during a first workshop held from 2 to 23 March 2021.

Download report of the first workshop :

https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Haiti-Consultation-1-Standard-file.pdf

ELSAs are essential areas for conserving critical biodiversity and providing humans with essential ecosystem services, such as carbon storage, food, fresh water, water filtration and disaster risk reduction.

By using this tool to process geospatial data, Haiti applies rigorous scientific methods to identify ELSAs based on national priorities and set specific goals for their protection, management and/or restoration. This process is one of the ways the country is working to advance national and international commitments to the Convention on Biological Diversity and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

During the project's second workshop, held in June 2021, Haitian stakeholders co-created in real time the first iteration of the Haitian map of critical life sustaining areas that reflectsnational priorities and realities. Note that this exercise is one of the first of its kind in the world.

Download Report of the 2nd workshop:

https://www.haitilibre.com/docs/Day-1-UNDP-CO-Final.pdf

Based on the results of this second phase, representatives of the Ministry of the Environment, UNDP and UNDP-Haiti met in October to finalize the ELSA map for the country, which is now available.

Project work will explore how the tool and final maps can support the implementation of key projects in Haiti, such as:

• By 2027, areas under agriculture, aquaculture and forestry are managed in a sustainable manner;

• By 2030, the rate of forest and agroforestry coverage will have increased respectively by 6%, baseline 2019, and by 30% through endemic and native forest and fruit species in strategic watersheds and landscapes of the country;

• By 2025, rare, threatened and vulnerable species will benefit, for the most emblematic of them, from a targeted intervention regime centered, where appropriate, on recovery, reproduction and reintroduction;

• By 2025, a national system of functional terrestrial protected areas and up to representing 20% ​​of the territory's cover is completed and the reduction of pressures on inland water ecosystems: in particular water towers , waterfalls and other inland wetlands (lakes and ponds) significantly reduced.

This ongoing work in Haiti inspires similar initiatives in other countries engaged in identifying their ELSAs, including but not limited to: South Africa, Cambodia, Chile, Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru...

HL/ HaïtiLibre