Haiti - Environment : 42% of palms, are threatened on the island
As part of the symposium "Palmas de Española" organized by the Botanical Garden of the Dominican Republic, the Dominican biologist Alberto Veloz stated that 35 species of palms are identified in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti, 23 of them are endemic and 12 natives. Of these 35 species, 42% (15) are on the red list or critically in danger of extinction to varying degrees, due to agricultural activities indiscriminately, livestock, fires, overexploitation of its leaves, population growth, tourism development, cutting of adult palms for timber and extraction of these species at all stages of their development, to the illegal trade, causing the destruction and/or modification of natural habitats of these palms.
In addition, Alberto Veloz complained that commercial use, for purposes in particular of landscaping, is not managed and promoted in a sustainable manner lamenting that "the worst is that the conservation status of 85% of palms, in Dominican Republic and Haiti, is not known and there are no regulations or standards for their rational use." He suggested to plant the endangered species in places similar to their habitat and put in place utreach programs to create a program of recovery and protection of palms.
In his intervention on "Risk of extinction of Haitian Cacheo (Pseudophoenix ekmanii)" William Cineas, the Director of the Botanical Garden of Les Cayes in Haiti, revealed that Haiti had only 0.56% of protected area, due to massive deforestation.
