Let's Build Gonave, Haiti!

Getting to and from La Gonave is a bit of a challenge. Typically you can fly into the island from Port-au-Prince using a charter flight, or you would have to take a ferry. Due to really expensive fares, most locals use the various sailboats and a ferry that go to and from the island. These water vessels are barely sea worthy, and some have even sunk. Most of the people who fly to the island are foreigners who are with or part of the not-for-profit groups on the island. Rarely if ever do Haitians fly even from the the Port-au-Prince airport, let alone La Gonave. The island of La Gonave has a 2,400 foot dirt runway that easily gets muddy when it rains, and often has livestock that is roaming the airstrip. This simply can not continue to happen. The La Gonave airport is only a 20 - 25 min flight from Port-au-Prince airport. Given the short distance, and large population on the island an air service could be supported. If you look at the numbers of people who daily go to and fr...

The countdown to La Gonave is coming up.  During my trip there, I will be teaching 4 adult student apprentices about beekeeping.  The goal is to have them at the certified beekeeper level before I leave the island.  We also will be installing 2 or 3 hives. The observation hive may come in time for our partner to bring it with her to the island.  If that is the case, we will install the hive there at that time.  We do know that the $1,500 hive has been awarded to our partner not-for-profit.  This is the first observation hive to ever have existed on La Gonave, and possibly the entire country of Haiti! Since we lost the grant for the pollinator park, we will be teaming up with the same not-for-profit an reapplying for the grant.  This could allow us to continue down the path of having a pollinator park soon on the island soon!  We are extremely excited about this project and are already finding ways to do more with less funds.  We decided t...

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...

One idea to keep continuous supply of cash flowing into the co-op is to have a hotel.  Tourism is returning back to Haiti and most of that is centered in and around Port-au-Prince.  So putting a simple hotel in Port-au-Prince is really a smart choice for the future.  As you know I am a fan of shipping containers, and being the country's major port city, it is easy to get these containers in, and to move them in place.  This hotel would be very simple and only contain at most 12 rooms.  While it wouldn't be a major hotel, it would provide strong revenue into the Co-Op.  This will allow the co-op to employ staff that is needed once the Co-Op is larger.  Transporting, packaging, etc. are all jobs that are with the greater good of the cooperative, but not profit making ventures. To combat the problem of the Co-Op not being able to fun much larger programs, outside revenue sources are needed.  This will prevent the need for investments from ...

June 26th of this year a large concert that was organized by mega producer Swizz Beats was done, and Chris Brown, and Lil Wayne performed.  Swizz Beats did as well, but obviously the two star attractions were Lil Wayne and Chris Brown.  Some say the Haitian government paid money to bring these folks over to give a free concert, others, such as Swizz Beats claims the artist paid for it themselves.  People were saying that the President, who is a musician, paid for this concert to possibly win a re-election.  The government stated that this will boost tourism to Haiti and will be a boost to the economy.  People were saying if the concert cost $2 million US, then imagine how many people that could have been feed, or housing, etc. Here is my take. In the large scale of things, $2 million is a drop in the bucket for what Haiti needs.  Sure $2 million is nothing to sneeze at, but if the thought of buying food aid or giving food to people is right, then I w...

With the Focus City concept I had talked about how that would work, the players involved, and how it will impact La Gonave. I mentioned that manufacturing is important and even a small manufacturer would be needed in the Focus City to help echo a strong movement of investment on La Gonave.  This is why it is important for the mayor of Anse-a-Galets to help create and establish an industrial park. Now not just your typical industrial park, but one that is innovative.  My proposal is a small technology park of around 10 acres.  One acre would be set aside for a business incubator building, which would help create new technology ideas which could then build the next new company.  A couple of speculative buildings would be built to help ease the process for new firms to locate into the park.  Our idea would be a 10,000 sq. ft and a 15,000 sq. ft speculative buildings.  Also just outside of the park would be a biomass/fuel power plant.  While the po...

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...

Our goal is to allow families on La Gonave to have jobs by creating their own.  The best way is to be their own business people.  By doing small scale farming, they will ensure their own food needs, but also some income as well. Our hope is to have farming ideas that are not extremely labor intensive, so that one could also have a job at an employer.  We want the average income on La Gonave to eventually exceed that of the mainland.  We think having honeybee farms, Talipia farms, rabbit farms, and vetiver grass fields are easy but high income jobs.  Wouldn't it be great if tourism was big on the island?  One could work full-time in the service industry and part-time farming. This fish is easy to raise, and produces a large sum of fry.  Given that there is already a very large operation on the mainland, we have already been in talks of creating farms on La Gonave.  These fish will aid in the food distribution that is needed on the island, and...

I wrote a blog on this topic several times.  I even mentioned how initially an airline could be a seaplane , due to the expense of building an actual runway.  While Gonave does have a dirt runway, it isn't always reliable due to it's size, condition, and the fact that it is made from dirt. A newer runway could be constructed that would allow very small planes to connect to Port-au-Prince.  Cessna Caravans would prove vital for Gonave success.  First off these planes are very affordable, with a price often around $1 million US.  Moreover, these planes are used by FedEx in smaller cities to fly packages in and out.  So not only is the aircraft affordable, it can also be used as a cargo plane.  Moreover, airlines have used the aircraft for passenger service.  New Mexico Airlines use these planes to fly passengers in state. Given the small amount of runway needed, cost, versatility, and reliability, a Cessna Caravan makes perfect sense. (see imag...

Courtesy of The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2014/jan/27/port-au-prince-collision-progress-haiti-earthquake