Disaster Recovery and Sustainability

As Haiti's relief efforts shift from response to recovery, thousands of citizens have begun the transition of moving back to rural areas while Port-au-Prince struggles to cope.  What's true now for Haiti, and what was true in Aceh after the tsunami, is that the ensuing pressures on the environment will soon begin to soar.  After the rubble is cleared, the need for timber in the reconstruction effort, coupled with the unyielding demand for charcoal, may very well be the tipping point for the 2% of Haiti's forest cover that remains.  

Like any disaster of this magnitude, a committee of international stake-holders will convene to determine how to spend the millions of relief aid already raised.  Capacity-building, infrastructure, schools and clinics are the typical focal points, yet hopefully this donor-funded effort will also include serious initiatives for ecological sustainability.  

Many relief organizations are seeing that in countries like Haiti, where wood is still the primary fuel source, disaster recovery needs to include protective measures for the local environment on which the people depend.  To that end, organizations like AMURT are not only responding with food distribution and mobile clinics, but also teaming up with environmental organizations to build and distribute energy-efficient "Rocket" stoves.  The UN's Haitian mission has recognized the need for sustainable development as well, establishing a thriving charcoal briquette-making plant that uses recycled paper instead of wood, is cheaper than the real thing, and creates meaningful employment.

With luck, the international community will stay long enough to see how a robust reforestation program could be the most vital recovery tool of all.