Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

For those who read this blog, they may ask what is wrong with using charcoal to cook your food? Actually in Haiti it has lead to devastating issues that compound. For one making charcoal requires the cutting down of trees. Once a lush forest is now a desert. Only 1-3% of the original forest cover still exists in Haiti. Cutting down trees, and not replacing them leads to soil erosion, weathering of the soil from the sun, wind, and rain, and even make an area arid. Haiti lacks food and water security, most of which traces back to the lack of good soil, which traces itself back to deforestation. Is deforestation the only cause of the lack of food and water security, no. It is a major problem that must be addressed and locals must adopt a different way of preparing meals and heating of water. Haiti, like many poor countries has access to kerosene. Kerosene was once widely used and lost favor over propane and electricity. Not only can kerosene power a refrigerator but also sto...

La Gonave Honeybee Project hive building will be an opportunity for local woodworkers to build the hives.  This will allow for local experience in building the hives, but also will lower overall costs of building the hives.  The hives will be built using plastic barrels but many aspects of the hive will still be wood, such as the top bars. There will also be the traditional wooden hive boxes as well, which will require 100% wood.  Based on market prices in Haiti for wood, these types of hives may not be on a large scale production.  Still we hope to start the production of hives as early as summer 2016.  This will allow us to have the stock of hives ready for new beekeepers.  Our goal is to produce one hive per week.  While that sounds like a very small number, 4 hives per month will be more than enough to end out 2016.  We expect that the number of hives built each month to double starting 2017. Each hive will have everything needed for a hi...

While La Gonave doesn't have any power plants, the discussion of many is how to provide an island of over 100,000 people with adequate power.  Some suggest renewable energy, others say build fossil fuel plants. Renewable energy seems like a good choice due to the fuel source being free or virtually free.  Things like wind and solar rely on what La Gonave has plenty of.  Biofuel and Biomass plants will allow for plants that are grown to supply the power.  The big problem with renewable energy is that they don't harness all of the energy they product.  So in other words, solar and wind tend to not supply the full net of power.  You also face problems with mother nature.  The wind may not be at constant speed needed to make wind power viable.  There could be days or weeks where extreme cloud cover affects the effectiveness of solar.  While there are benefits of free or near free fuel, renewable energy isn't always dependable.  They, at t...

Once of the main things that I am asked and challenged on is, if the people of La Gonave decide to govern themselves, how will this new government survive? First there are several things that I think should be in place before taking such action as creating a Special Administrative Region.  Not in any order, security, food, basic infrastructure, training, universal identification, chosen currency. Now there are many more things that go into it, but I will start off with these basic things briefly, and then get on to the top of financing the SAR. As mentioned in the previous post, security has to be created.  This is something that the local people on La Gonave support, and that leaders on the island organize.  Food is something that is needed over everything else.  Having the ability to supply some food, lowers the cost of food, keeps more money on the island, and helps prevent famine and food crisis.  Basic infrastructure is something that has to be done....

You not understand the volume of eggs that Haiti imports every year, especially from the Dominican Republic.  I just talked about exporting to the DR, now I want to talk about importing.  Many Haitians want to buy local, but the cost to do so often gets in the way.  While some will argue the imported eggs and chicken parts may be contaminated, many Haitians are on a strict budget and will purchase imported food so that their money will go father.  For the price of  150.00 Gourdes, one could get several chicken parts and a fish.  Again this is from importers.  How do you stop this and give Haitian farmers a chance? Volume.  If you flood the market, then prices go down.  When the Haitian price of eggs and chicken parts go down, you then will see the flow of imported chicken parts and eggs go down.  Currently Dominican eggs are 14.00 Gourdes or so, and Haitian eggs are 20.00 Gourdes.  That small difference in cost adds up over time ...

One major advantage that La Gonave will have is that Haiti and Dominican Republic is so close.  Combined both countries have some 20 million people.  Going from Anse-a-Galets to Port-au-Prince is about an hour or less if we get the correct type of small cargo boat.  Then from Port-au-Prince to Santo Domingo, DR you are looking at about a 5 hour trip, not counting traffic. Trade will be huge for the island of La Gonave to successful.  Many goods could be traded to the DR, including farm crops but also things such as limestone, which La Gonave has plenty of.  The island shouldn't compromise itself by digging for limestone, but having a small quarry where the material is sold to the DR could be of major benefit.  Again tight control on where to get the natural limestone should be done so that it doesn't destroy the environment.  I mentioned long ago in other blogs that a Bureau of Land Management should be formed just to monitor and control this sort o...

(Image by Google Earth) This map is what could be the commuter rail line for Gonave.  The line would be some 77 miles long when completed, and would be done in phases/sections.  The goal is to connect the island with rail, while limiting the amount of personal vehicles. The track would be single track in most locations, and then branch to double track along some stations and major areas. I will post photos and videos of a potential train system that could utilize this track.  Not only will this system allow for passenger traffic by day and night, but also will allow for freight in the late hours of the night, which can limit the amount of money needed for have more ports and highways. While this system is many years away, and completing the entire system is even many more years away, it is an idea of how to modernize Gonave and put it in direct competition with places like Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic. Go Gonave!