THE HORRENDOUS death toll from storm floods in Haiti is an extreme example of what deforestation can cause. With the death toll confirmed at 1,100 and rising there is stark contrast with neighbouring Dominican Republic where the toll from the impact of what was then Tropical Storm Jeanne caused just 19 deaths.
The Haitian hillsides on the western side of Hispaniola, the island it shares with the Dominican Republic, are so denuded that the heavy rains triggered mudslides and widespread flooding.
As the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, an estimated 80 per cent of the Haitian population live in absolute poverty a state which is hardly conducive to careful cultural practices on the land. This condition has existed for decades of mostly totalitarian regimes, despite the distinction of celebrating this year the centennial of being the first black independent nation in the world.
The enormity of the crisis has forced mass burial of corpses in deep graves even as survivors panicked from hunger and thirst.
Even with international aid targeting the catastrophe, we should not ignore the lesson that needs to be applied to the treatment of our own mountain forests. Jamaica has been cited for severe levels of deforestation and local environmentalists have repeatedly warned about the effect of random peasant farming on the hillsides.
This hurricane season has ravaged several sections of Florida experiencing three hits thus far; but the impact on our own CARICOM region is unusually severe. Grenada, with a direct hit from Ivan, must have suffered the widest scale of infrastructural damage. Haiti's death toll makes it the most tragic, especially for a nation so benighted by social and economic circumstances.
Our own predicament pales in comparison, but we still have to take note that environmental degradation is potentially dangerous. On the approach of Hurricane Ivan, the Met Office bulletins included the potential for mudslides from the hillsides. True enough, landslides have blocked some rural roads.
If we don't preserve the forests worse can happen. The effects of global warming suggest that this hyperactive season may be a foretaste of greater disaster to come.
THE OPINIONS ON THIS PAGE, EXCEPT FOR THE ABOVE, DO NOT NECESSARILY REFLECT THE VIEWS OF THE GLEANER.
