Biodiversity in Haiti’s Cloud Forests

Cloud forests along the southern peninsula of Haiti in the Pic Macaya National Forest are home to a variety of endangered frogs and birds found only in Haiti (see also this report).

The Vermont Institute for Natural Science (VINS) has made several trips to the Pic Macaya in recent years to capture, tag, and document birds there. This 2006 brief, but very informative, report (with a couple of nice photos) is worth a look (a longer and much more technical report from 2004 is also available). It sounds as if plans exist to help protect both of Haiti’s national forests and some part of future international funds should, I feel, go towards this goal. This 2007 report by VINS indicates that interest in the government is present. They also found that the local population had an interest (although they gave no specific details):

Locally, a conservation ethic appears to be present, but acknowledgment of Macaya's importance is constrained by the day-to-day struggle of its people to survive. No one harbors illusions that long-term conservation must entail significant socioeconomic changes for the local population. We batted around many ideas of how that might happen, but it is clear that a significant international commitment of resources will be needed. The situation is tenuous, but far from hopeless. (page 2; emphasis in original)

I lived for several weeks in Jeremie and went up into the mountains one day on a mule. The greenery and fog up in those mountains are truly amazing.

Haiti’s other national forest, La Visite in the southeast, is also home to some endangered bird species (see page four of that VINS report).

Comments

[Paul Clammer]

A useful Haitian conservation organisation to contact that has been involved with Pic Macaya is La Société Audubon (the naturalist/painter John Audobon was born in Les Cayes in 1785). They are a mine of information on the park, and can also assist with arrange guides and logistics for trips into the mountains. (It's also possible to visit the revolutionary-era Citadelle des Platons here).

The society can be contacted through
www.audubonhaiti.org

Paul Clammer (author, Lonely Planet Haiti guidebook)

[Doug]

Thanks, Paul. I wasn't aware that Audubon was born in Haiti. Very interesting!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon