[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 70 (Thursday, May 19, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S3163]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HAITI REFORESTATION ACT OF 2011

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I have had the opportunity to visit Haiti 
on a number of occasions and have always been moved by the kindness and 
generosity of the Haitian people who live under such hard conditions.
  I have traveled for hours into rural Haiti to visit impressive 
programs such as Partners In Health's health clinic, which provides 
HIV/AIDS treatment and clean water for nursing mothers.
  Unfortunately, despite such programs and the efforts of U.N. 
peacekeeping forces to bring some measure of security to Haiti, the 
living conditions for average Haitians remains deeply troubling.
  An already weak political system and weak government were then 
confronted last year with a devastating earthquake that struck Haiti's 
densely populated capitol of Port au Prince and several surrounding 
towns.
  A staggering number of houses and buildings simply collapsed, 
virtually destroying Haiti's fragile infrastructure.
  More than 200,000 people were killed and an estimated 1.5 million 
more were displaced.
  Americans and people from all over the world donated money, organized 
shipments of medicine, food and water, and traveled to Haiti as 
emergency relief workers to help rescue and treat earthquake victims.
  Prior to the earthquake, Haiti was already the poorest country in the 
Western Hemisphere.
  Today, Haiti suffers from widespread unemployment, with 80 percent of 
the population living under the poverty line.
  Historically, Haiti has also been devastated by tropical storms. In 
2004, Hurricane Jeanne struck Haiti, killing approximately 3,000 of its 
residents, and displacing over 200,000 more.
  Just last year, Haiti narrowly missed being struck by Hurricane 
Thomas, while hundreds of thousands of Haitians were living in 
temporary tents camps suffering from the spread of cholera.
  While we cannot undo the terrible damage of the January 2010 
earthquake, we can show the best of American compassion, generosity, 
and ingenuity in helping the Haitian people rebuild their nation by 
addressing one of the underlying causes of the country's problems--the 
deforestation of Haiti's once plentiful tropical forests.
  When you look at the lush green of the Dominican Republic and compare 
it to the stark desolation on Haiti's side of the border, it is easy to 
see why Haiti is so much more vulnerable to soil erosion, landslides, 
and flooding than its neighbor.
  It was not always that way. In 1923, Haiti's tropical forest covered 
60 percent of the country.
  Today, less than 2 percent of those forests remain. In the past 5 
years, the deforestation rate has accelerated by more than 20 percent.
  Since 1990, Haiti has lost 22 percent of its remaining forest and 
woodland habitat.
  This deforestation has had terrible, unintended consequences. The 
soil erosion that has resulted from cutting down all of these trees has 
made the island more vulnerable to floods and mudslides--substantially 
reducing Haiti's already scarce agricultural land and rendering what 
remains less productive.
  Haiti's tropical forests, if protected and regrown, would fight the 
destructive effects of soil erosion.
  Saving old and growing new tropical forests would help protect 
Haiti's freshwater sources from contaminants, would safeguard Haiti's 
remaining irrigable land, and would save lives during hurricane season.
  Helping Haiti deal with its deforestation problems is not only the 
right thing to do for our nearby neighbors, it is the smart thing to do 
with our limited assistance dollars.
  Senators Collins and Kerry join me in introducing the Haiti 
Reforestation Act to reverse the deforestation challenge. The bill aims 
to end within 5 years deforestation in Haiti and restore within 30 
years the tropical forest cover in existence in Haiti in 1990.
  While it is important to start putting trees in the ground, this bill 
is about more than just planting trees. Our government has tried that 
approach in the past and it has proven to be ineffective.
  This bill empowers the U.S. Government to work with Haiti to develop 
forest-management programs based on proven, market-based models. These 
models will be tailored to help Haiti manage its conservation and 
reforestation efforts in ways that can be measured, and it does so 
without authorizing any new funding.
  In last year's supplemental we provided $25 million for reforestation 
programs in Haiti. This bill would make sure such existing funds are 
spent wisely and productively.
  Haiti's former Prime Minister, Michele Pierre-Louis, sized up the 
problem in Haiti perfectly:

       The whole country is facing an ecological disaster. We 
     cannot keep going on like this. We are going to disappear one 
     day. There will not be 400, 500 or 1,000 deaths [from 
     hurricanes]. There are going to be a million deaths.

  We must act to ensure that that day never comes. I urge my colleagues 
to support the Haiti Reforestation Act of 2011.

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