Week 13 Blog
The coastline of Haiti is eroding severely and more and more seriously, as the seas get higher, the tropical storms get stronger, and the large-scale deforestation of the mangroves, which provide the best protection, is going on. The combination of the rising sea and the storms is causing the beaches to recede more and more, thus damaging the infrastructure and making the coastal communities evacuate further inland. The deforestation of the mangroves for fuel and housing has been one of the main factors that reduced the natural barrier against the sea and that is why places like Les Cayes, Jacmel, and parts of northern Haiti are now very likely being flooded. These ecological factors, along with the heavy population in the coastal regions as well as the absence of good land use control, make it impossible for the people to hold onto their houses, fishing to be the only food and income source, and the growth of the economy to be sustainable in the long run. Haiti is ...