Connect us with Nature (Connectons-nous avec la Nature) is the theme around which runs in Les Cayes, a week of activities from April 26 to May 3 2013, as part of the celebration of Labor Day and agriculture. During this week, William Cinéas, Director of the Botanical Garden of Les Cayes, the first botanical garden in Haiti that he created in 2004, by its own means and the naturalist Fabiola Louis, head of the Garden events, intend to continue the struggle for the creation of a National Botanical Garden in Haiti. As mentioned William Cinéas since the Rio Summit (1992), the Haitian State has signed numerous agreements on biodiversity conservation, but so far no site of biodiversity conservation has been created.

William Cinéas which recalls the importance of the four main objectives of Botanic Gardens: conservation, scientific research, education and tourism, remains convinced that the Haitian government must invest in the creation of botanical gardens throughout the country as stipulated in the 1987 Haitian Constitution Article 256 "As part of the Environmental Protection and Public Education, the State is obliged to proceed with the creation and maintenance of botanical and zoological gardens at certain points in its territory." noting that after 25 years of advocacy, Haiti has not advanced in this area, although there are more than 2,500 botanical gardens in the world, including 43 in the Caribbean, including the Botanical Garden of our neighbor, the Dominican Republic, created in the heart of the capital Santo Domingo, in 1976 over an area of ​​128 carreaux.

The Director of the Botanical Garden of Les Cayes is determined to ensure that the botanical gardens become a viable policy in Haiti and that the Government established a National Botanical Garden and other gardens in the country, by 2020, to really contribute to the environmental restoration, to the protection and conservation of the biodiversity.

Also during this week of activities will be launched an international symposium in honor of the Swedish botanist Erick Eckman, founder of the National Herbarium of Haiti.

HL/ HaitiLibre