Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends

A widely cited report from 1979 suggested that existing wood supplies in Haiti would be enough to meet increasing charcoal demand until around the year 2000, but that ongoing charcoal production could result in an environmental ‘apocalypse’ (Voltaire 1979, 21, 23) The prediction that wood supplies in Haiti would be exhausted by 2000 was also supported by a report on trends emerging from early remote sensing analyses of aerial photographs spanning from 1956 to 1978, for threedifferent locations in Haiti (Cohen 1984, v–iv). And yet, some 40 years later, Haitians continue to produce large quantities of charcoal despite these dire predictions to the contrary. The estimations and subsequent extrapolations presented here are conservative, using midrange estimates on a number of variables, including charcoal bag carrying capacities for different-sized vehicles in the classificatory typology, an average weight assumption for charcoal bags, and the utilization of annual extrapolation methods (for Port-au-Prince and all of Haiti) based on extending data sampled during representative low and peak periods of charcoal production to corresponding low and peak seasons across the entire year. This research provides targeted answers to a narrow set of research questions, helping to fill an important information gap in Haiti. Most notably, the total volume of charcoal moving into Port-au-Prince has implications on the total required volume of primary production of biomass for charcoal and the total value of the charcoal value chains, demonstrating the magnitude of importance of charcoal production for Haiti. These two up-to-date figures may inform policy decisions for development and government programming related to landscape management, reforestation, tree planting, agroforestry, and agricultural projects in Haiti.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Tarter, Andrew, Freeman, Katie Kennedy, Ward, Christopher, Sander, Klas, Theus, Kenson, Coello, Barbara, Fawaz, Yarine, Miles, Melinda, Ahmed, Tarig Tagalasfia G.
Format:	Report biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	World Bank, Washington, DC 2018-11
Subjects:	CHARCOAL PRODUCTION, FOREST MANAGEMENT, FOREST LAND COVER, DEFORESTATION, CHARCOAL CONSUMPTION, FORESTRY,
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/697221548446232632/Charcoal-in-Haiti-A-National-Assessment-of-Charcoal-Production-and-Consumption-Trends http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31257
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