OS story re: improving Haiti's environment

[john engle]

Hi friends.

Recently I was reminded again of the power of sharing good stories.

I thought I'd share a report that my friend and colleague Melinda Miles 
wrote about the OS event her organization sponsored in September. I had the 
wonderful opportunity of accompanying Ulrick, who facilitated. Some of you 
know Ulrick, who participated in Practice of Peace gathering on Whidbey 
Island.

Ulrick is thriving, facilitating open space events right and left and 
helping others to learn os as well. Fremy and many others in Haiti are 
thriving as well. I just thought it would be good to share a little update 
from one of the many places I'm sure, where the practice of open space 
continues to blossom but because most of the practitioners don't speak 
english, they are not present on this list.

Melinda posted the report below on a popular listserv for people interested 
in Haiti. I think there are about 1,200 people on it, most of which are 
outside of Haiti.


Dear Friends of Haiti,

At the end of September, Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY hosted nearly forty 
Haitians in Jacmel, Haiti, for a three day conference on the environment. 
The conference was an opportunity for Haitians from throughout the country 
to gather and share experience and knowledge and launch a national working 
group on the environment. KONPAY is excited to share the following summary 
report of the conference with you. If you are interested in learning more or 
getting involved, please don't hesitate to contact us, melinda at konpay.org.

For a green Haiti,

Joe Duplan and Melinda Miles Co-Directors, KONPAY, www.konpay.org

Building a National Working Group on the Haitian Environment

Summary Report of the Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY Conference, September 2005

CONTENTS: 1. Introduction

2. Resolutions for a Green Haiti

3. Resolution on Women

4. Education and Training

5. Carrying the Work Forward

6. KONPAY Activities for National Environmental Initiative

7. Get Involved!

1. Introduction

At the end of September, Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY hosted a three-day meeting 
in Jacmel, Haiti on the theme: How can we build a national working group on 
Haiti’s environment? Participants were recruited from strategic geographical 
areas and professional sectors. Forty Haitians from throughout Haiti arrived 
to share their experiences with environmental protection and rehabilitation 
and to contribute their ideas to this critically important topic.

A diversity of current initiatives on behalf of Haiti’s environment were 
represented, including national peasant movements, non-governmental 
institutions, small-community based organizations and groups working with 
international and church support. Among the participants were agronomists, 
agronomy technicians, a forestry engineer, community organizers, educators, 
anthropologists and people with years of on-the-ground experience.

KONPAY chose to use the Open Space method to facilitate the greatest 
possible exchange of ideas. Open Space gives participants the freedom to 
create an agenda that covers what is most important to them, based on the 
logic that passion creates motivation. As a result, the agenda of the 
meeting came from participants who are not only engaged in environmental 
work but feel the affects of Haiti’s environmental problems first-hand in 
their communities.

Major themes discussed during the conference include: Poverty and 
environmental degradation The importance of planting trees and preserving 
remaining forests; Alternatives to charcoal; Solutions for garbage and 
pollution; Responsibilities of the government and lobbying the authorities; 
Training, education and raising awareness; The importance of women in 
environmental work; Why a “konbit” (a community work group) on the 
environment; and Carrying the work forward, collaboration and outreach.

2. Resolutions for a Green Haiti

Throughout the conference participants reaffirmed their consensus around one 
major goal: building a green Haiti. The focus of the conference was to 
create a new working group who will lead a national initiative toward this 
end. The first step was to bring leaders from diverse locations and 
backgrounds together and to create trust within the group. The conference 
allowed people the opportunity to get to know one another, begin to build 
connections, and to form consensus. The participants in the conference 
arrived at several points of unity:

1. We need to take action now. We have to plant and protect trees. We need 
measures to conserve soil across the country. Where there are no irrigation 
systems, we must build them. Where there is the opportunity to transform 
agricultural products, we have to create the means for transformation. Where 
we have tourist spots we should develop eco-tourism and arts and crafts. We 
will take the initiative to create a national “konbit” (working group) for 
the environment with people from each of Haiti’s ten geographical 
departments.

2. We will combat poverty. The environmental problems we are facing call us 
to create something more than an isolated movement; we have to work on the 
causes of poverty.

3. Education and raising awareness are critical to efforts to save Haiti’s 
environment. Public education campaigns to inform the general public about 
environmental issues and community schools for peasant farmers should be 
established. People need to learn the importance of trees – educate the 
young people. Work should be done to raise awareness among charcoal 
producers of the alternatives to charcoal.

4. The government must take its responsibility. It needs to make laws to 
conserve soil and protect trees. Measures have to be taken to find 
alternative systems for the owners of dry cleaning, bakeries and other 
businesses that use wood for fuel. The state should provide more resources 
and work harder to help people respond to the needs of the families. We will 
work together to pressure the government of Haiti to take its 
responsibility.

3. Resolution on Women

Considering the marginalization of women in Haiti’s society, juxtaposed with 
their integral role in agricultural and family life, the participants of the 
conference expressed the importance of empowering women to participate in 
the national working group.

We will include women in all of our meetings and assemblies. We will help 
women free their minds from the instruction of inequality they learn from 
their families and society. We will raise awareness with men so they can 
understand women, and with women so they can be integrated into all 
activities.

4. Education and Training

Participants in the conference were unanimous in their belief that education 
and training are critical elements in efforts to protect the environment. 
Education and training must be made available to the general population 
about the environment in which they live. This includes the means and 
methods for protecting their land, methods for recycling and composting, the 
importance of trees to people and soil, and the necessity of rotating crops 
to renew soil. Public service announcements should be ongoing and should be 
complimented with educational events that reach people in their homes, 
schools, churches and other community venues.

5. Carrying the Work Forward

As the conference drew to a close, participants tackled the question of how 
to follow up and continue the work that was started during the event. The 
group decided that each individual and his/her organization must share the 
results of the conference with his/her community. It was suggested that a 
follow-up conference be held in one year to include broader participation 
from national stakeholders in the environment. Also, a group was formed to 
review and organize conference results into a bound document for broad 
consumption of references on education, training, resources and the national 
initiative.

Why a konbit for Haiti’s environment? Participants discussed the reason for 
choosing to create a konbit, or working group, as opposed to a national 
network or other more formal institution: A konbit is a group of people who 
put their heads together for one goal because we are all aware, and we are 
all victims. If we want to save the environment, a konbit is the last card 
in the deck, and it’s time to play it. A konbit is the right philosophy, 
because the environment is the work of everyone. The environment is complex, 
so we need a team that includes agronomists, forestry engineers, women, and 
educators. We can have a group designated to keep contact and inform others 
of the work of the konbit, and local groups can help their communities get 
involved.

Participants agreed that because it overlaps with KONPAY’s current 
activities, KONPAY should coordinate follow-up activities determined by the 
conference participants. Tasks include: 1. Facilitate ongoing communication 
among participants.

2. Conduct follow-up activities to achieve our long-term objective of an 
active, grassroots-based national working group for a green Haiti.

3. Permit decentralization by visiting communities in remote rural areas and 
integrating them into the initiative.

4. Coordinate and facilitate relationship building and training among 
participants.

5. Keep a community calendar of events on the internet.

6. Encourage participants to stay engaged.

7. Envision an action plan for the initiative, using input from entire 
working group.

6. KONPAY Activities for the National Environmental Initiative

Konbit Pou Ayiti/KONPAY (Working Together for Haiti) strengthens existing 
organizations, builds national networks and creates relationships between 
individuals in the U.S. and Haiti. KONPAY focuses on Haitian solutions to 
environmental, social and economic problems and provides training and 
funding to grassroots and community-based projects.

In September KONPAY realized a long-term dream of bringing together Haitian 
environmentalists to strategize and plan a national initiative together. 
Over the next year, KONPAY will be coordinating follow-up activities on the 
conference and preparing for a larger, national conference next year. This 
work will happen on several levels.

First, KONPAY will catalogue existing efforts on the environment. KONPAY 
will solicit information from organizations that can be accessed via 
internet or phone and will conduct site visits to remote areas around the 
country. Staff will visit villages in each geographical department to meet 
with local environmental leaders. With the information gathered, KONPAY will 
begin to build a library of organizations, cooperatives, and other 
initiatives for the environment around the country. The entries for each 
effort will include information about what resources they have and what they 
need. This directory will be available on the internet. In addition, KONPAY 
will begin building a library of information and articles on the environment 
in Creole to be available both online and for hard copy distribution in more 
remote areas.

The second aspect of the effort is direct assistance to projects throughout 
the country. This assistance will sometimes be funding for a tree nursery or 
other project. Whenever possible KONPAY will link existing efforts to 
utilize resources already available. For example, KONPAY is working now to 
put a new group in Hatte-Granmont (Artibonite) in touch with the project in 
Gros Morne, which is large enough to offer training and seedlings to 
Hatte-Granmont. KONPAY has hired an agronomist, Claudy Pierre, and will soon 
be bringing on another agronomist, Carlot Oscar, to work as a team offering 
diverse training to groups throughout the country. Claudy and Carlot will 
offer technical support to projects and conduct outreach for building the 
national konbit on the environment, as well.

KONPAY will keep September conference participants engaged by coordinating 
their outreach efforts for the konbit on the environment, visiting their 
projects and offering support wherever possible. KONPAY will work with 
participants to find new groups and to hold regional Open Space meetings to 
begin determining regional and national agendas on the environment. As the 
months progress, a small team will begin planning a second national 
conference.

Participants in the conference were quick to point out that the problems in 
Haiti's environment are intertwined with the crushing poverty the majority 
of the population lives in. KONPAY hopes that a triple threat of direct 
assistance, training/popular education, and national organizing will have 
immediate, short term benefits, as well as long-term results, especially for 
rural families who cannot find enough food to eat. All of KONPAY’s 
environmental work is based on the principle that there are five areas that 
require simultaneous attention in order for any environmental efforts to 
succeed: (1) Tree planting and reforestation, (2) irrigation and potable 
water, (3) soil conservation and renewal, (4) alternatives to charcoal, and 
(5) family level food security.

7. Get Involved!

KONPAY and the National Working Group on the Environment are committed to 
the principles of Open Space, including “The people who come are the people 
who are supposed to be there.” If you feel called to participate in building 
a greener Haiti, you are welcome to join us! Here are some ways to get 
involved:

1. Suggest projects, individuals, institutions, or locations to be included 
in the national directory of environmental projects.

2. Send articles for the new Creole library on the environment! Creole is 
preferred, but we’ll accept articles in English and French as well.

3. Volunteer to help translate materials from English and French into 
Creole.

4. Contact KONPAY to get more deeply involved, Melinda at konpay.org.

5. Make a donation to help support these efforts. Your funding will be put 
to work immediately! Here is how your funding might be used:

$ 50 Equipment grant for community group

$100 Scholarship to cover one participant in an in-country exchange

$150 Monthly salary for part-time KONPAY agronomist/organizer

$200 Community-wide education campaign

$250 Travel/stipend for trainers and community educators

$450 Community training session (includes stipends, travel, materials)

$1000 Regional Open Space Meeting and Training

$1,500+ Direct assistance to a community project

END



http://circlesofchange.com participatory learning & leadership in Haiti
http://johnengle.net Open Space facilitation

email: john at johnengle.net
telephone: 202-236-6532

P.O. Box 337
Hershey, PA 17033

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