Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends

A widely cited report from 1979 suggested that existing wood supplies in Haiti would be enough to meet increasing charcoal demand until around the year 2000, but that ongoing charcoal production could result in an environmental ‘apocalypse’ (Voltai...

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Main Authors: Tarter, Andrew, Freeman, Katie Kennedy, Ward, Christopher, Sander, Klas, Theus, Kenson, Coello, Barbara, Fawaz, Yarine, Miles, Melinda, Ahmed, Tarig Tagalasfia G.
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2019
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/697221548446232632/Charcoal-in-Haiti-A-National-Assessment-of-Charcoal-Production-and-Consumption-Trends
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31257
id okr-10986-31257
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-312572021-05-25T09:21:29Z Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends Tarter, Andrew Freeman, Katie Kennedy Ward, Christopher Sander, Klas Theus, Kenson Coello, Barbara Fawaz, Yarine Miles, Melinda Ahmed, Tarig Tagalasfia G. CHARCOAL PRODUCTION FOREST MANAGEMENT FOREST LAND COVER DEFORESTATION CHARCOAL CONSUMPTION FORESTRY A widely cited report from 1979 suggested that existing wood supplies in Haiti would be enough to meet increasing charcoal demand until around the year 2000, but that ongoing charcoal production could result in an environmental ‘apocalypse’ (Voltaire 1979, 21, 23) The prediction that wood supplies in Haiti would be exhausted by 2000 was also supported by a report on trends emerging from early remote sensing analyses of aerial photographs spanning from 1956 to 1978, for threedifferent locations in Haiti (Cohen 1984, v–iv). And yet, some 40 years later, Haitians continue to produce large quantities of charcoal despite these dire predictions to the contrary. The estimations and subsequent extrapolations presented here are conservative, using midrange estimates on a number of variables, including charcoal bag carrying capacities for different-sized vehicles in the classificatory typology, an average weight assumption for charcoal bags, and the utilization of annual extrapolation methods (for Port-au-Prince and all of Haiti) based on extending data sampled during representative low and peak periods of charcoal production to corresponding low and peak seasons across the entire year. This research provides targeted answers to a narrow set of research questions, helping to fill an important information gap in Haiti. Most notably, the total volume of charcoal moving into Port-au-Prince has implications on the total required volume of primary production of biomass for charcoal and the total value of the charcoal value chains, demonstrating the magnitude of importance of charcoal production for Haiti. These two up-to-date figures may inform policy decisions for development and government programming related to landscape management, reforestation, tree planting, agroforestry, and agricultural projects in Haiti. 2019-02-08T21:25:34Z 2019-02-08T21:25:34Z 2018-11 Report http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/697221548446232632/Charcoal-in-Haiti-A-National-Assessment-of-Charcoal-Production-and-Consumption-Trends http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31257 English CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Economic & Sector Work :: Other Agriculture Study Economic & Sector Work Latin America & Caribbean Haiti
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic CHARCOAL PRODUCTION
FOREST MANAGEMENT
FOREST LAND COVER
DEFORESTATION
CHARCOAL CONSUMPTION
FORESTRY
spellingShingle CHARCOAL PRODUCTION
FOREST MANAGEMENT
FOREST LAND COVER
DEFORESTATION
CHARCOAL CONSUMPTION
FORESTRY
Tarter, Andrew
Freeman, Katie Kennedy
Ward, Christopher
Sander, Klas
Theus, Kenson
Coello, Barbara
Fawaz, Yarine
Miles, Melinda
Ahmed, Tarig Tagalasfia G.
Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends
geographic_facet Latin America & Caribbean
Haiti
description A widely cited report from 1979 suggested that existing wood supplies in Haiti would be enough to meet increasing charcoal demand until around the year 2000, but that ongoing charcoal production could result in an environmental ‘apocalypse’ (Voltaire 1979, 21, 23) The prediction that wood supplies in Haiti would be exhausted by 2000 was also supported by a report on trends emerging from early remote sensing analyses of aerial photographs spanning from 1956 to 1978, for threedifferent locations in Haiti (Cohen 1984, v–iv). And yet, some 40 years later, Haitians continue to produce large quantities of charcoal despite these dire predictions to the contrary. The estimations and subsequent extrapolations presented here are conservative, using midrange estimates on a number of variables, including charcoal bag carrying capacities for different-sized vehicles in the classificatory typology, an average weight assumption for charcoal bags, and the utilization of annual extrapolation methods (for Port-au-Prince and all of Haiti) based on extending data sampled during representative low and peak periods of charcoal production to corresponding low and peak seasons across the entire year. This research provides targeted answers to a narrow set of research questions, helping to fill an important information gap in Haiti. Most notably, the total volume of charcoal moving into Port-au-Prince has implications on the total required volume of primary production of biomass for charcoal and the total value of the charcoal value chains, demonstrating the magnitude of importance of charcoal production for Haiti. These two up-to-date figures may inform policy decisions for development and government programming related to landscape management, reforestation, tree planting, agroforestry, and agricultural projects in Haiti.
format Report
author Tarter, Andrew
Freeman, Katie Kennedy
Ward, Christopher
Sander, Klas
Theus, Kenson
Coello, Barbara
Fawaz, Yarine
Miles, Melinda
Ahmed, Tarig Tagalasfia G.
author_facet Tarter, Andrew
Freeman, Katie Kennedy
Ward, Christopher
Sander, Klas
Theus, Kenson
Coello, Barbara
Fawaz, Yarine
Miles, Melinda
Ahmed, Tarig Tagalasfia G.
author_sort Tarter, Andrew
title Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends
title_short Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends
title_full Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends
title_fullStr Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends
title_full_unstemmed Charcoal in Haiti : A National Assessment of Charcoal Production and Consumption Trends
title_sort charcoal in haiti : a national assessment of charcoal production and consumption trends
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2019
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/697221548446232632/Charcoal-in-Haiti-A-National-Assessment-of-Charcoal-Production-and-Consumption-Trends
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/31257
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