Haiti—Resilient Environment North (HRE-N)

In northern Haiti, the Bahon, Joli Trou, and Les Perches sub-watersheds provide critical ecosystem services for local communities. Water availability, erosion control, and forested watersheds are particularly important for the sustainability of crop and livestock production on which these communities rely for income, food security, and resilience to shocks and stressors. While many households in these sub-watersheds are aware of improved natural resource management (NRM) practices and technologies, a majority live in poverty and lack the time, resources, and finances to utilize these practices in a consistent or scalable manner. With drought and increasingly intense natural disasters brought on by climate change, prioritizing the ecological health of the sub-watersheds is even more imperative.

To help address these issues, the U.S. Agency for International Development designed the Haiti Resilient Environment North (HRE-N) Activity, to build communities’ resilience to reduce chronic vulnerability and facilitate inclusive growth. Despite a challenging context, HRE-N, or Projet Paysages Resilients in French, represents an opportunity to support shifts in watershed management practices across households, communities, and sub-watersheds.

By systematically fostering local ownership and identifying incentives through regular engagement with stakeholders, our watershed management approach will align economic incentives with improved NRM practices. By combining this with improved organizational and technical capacity of communities and stakeholder groups, our approach ensures that HRE-N will leave behind more self-reliant local actors and interventions that lead to long-lasting change.

Sample Activities

• Facilitate community watershed vision workshops.
• Increase farmer incomes from sustainable agroforestry products.
• Improve incomes and savings from intensified agriculture.
• Improve charcoal production practices for incomes and environmental sustainability.
• Promote social and behavior change for improved watershed management.
• Install physical infrastructure to combat erosion.