Haiti has signed a financing agreement with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) regarding the execution of its Inclusive Blue Economy (I-BE) project that will help preserve the Three Bays Protected Area by providing economic opportunities for smallholder farmers and artisanal fishers living in the northeast of the country.
The US$26.6 million project, which will be executed by the Ministry of Economy and Finance, is expected to benefit an estimated 40,000 people who live in the five municipalities of the protected area with particular attention being paid to women and young people.
IFAD is providing US$14 million towards the project that will strengthen the capacities of the National Agency for Protected Areas of Haiti (ANAP) and facilitate the adaptation of national legislation in favor of artisanal fishing and its sustainability.
IFAD Country Director for Haiti, Paolo Silveri, said the region’s “poverty and malnutrition rates and poor fishing and agricultural practices, such as the use of fine-mesh seines, the anarchic slaughter of trees for charcoal production, slash-and-burn agriculture and the lack of soil preservation techniques, are depleting marine and terrestrial resources, threatening their sustainability and posing worrying risks to the country’s food security in the medium term.
“The project will help regulate these practices, thereby reducing pressure on natural resources, and diversify food production by encouraging good practices in small-scale animal husbandry, vegetable growing, honey and salt, and the management of mangrove forests. It will promote more sustainable use of wood as a fuel for cooking by offering training in charcoal production techniques and the improvement of domestic ovens.”
“The best way to help Haiti’s small-scale farmers and artisanal fishers progress and contribute to the country’s food security is to provide them with the means to carry out their economic activities in a sustainable way, in a way that does not force them to deplete resources. to survive,” said Silveri.
IFAD said since it began its work in Haiti nearly 45 years ago, it has invested in 11 projects representing a total of approximately US$290 million, which have benefited more than 100,000 rural families.
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