(2010-06) History of Watershed Management Interventions and Lessons Learned

Government of Haiti, Comité Interministériel d'Aménagement du Territoire (CIAT) • 2010 • 5 pages

Summary — A periodisation of sixty years of Haitian watershed interventions, presented to the CIAT's June 2010 colloquium. It divides the record into a scattered 1950s-60s, a 1960-80 phase of mechanical structures with food and cash for work, and a 1980-2000 turn to agroforestry and biological structures.

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Key Findings

1950-60: a multiplicity of uncoordinated actions.
1960-80: mechanical structures (dry walls, contour canals) delivered via food-for-work and cash-for-work.
1980-2000: a turn to agroforestry, biological structures and participatory approaches.
The field changed its central technique roughly every twenty years, each time reacting to the previous doctrine.

Full Description

The value of this short paper is that it treats Haiti's watershed work as a history with distinct doctrines rather than as a single continuing effort, which makes the failures legible. Its periodisation runs: 1950-60, a multiplicity of uncoordinated actions; 1960-80, emphasis on mechanical structures such as dry walls and contour canals, delivered through food-for-work and cash-for-work; and 1980-2000, a shift to agroforestry and biological structures with a participatory approach. Read as a sequence, it shows a field that changed its central technique roughly every twenty years, each time in reaction to the previous doctrine's shortcomings, and the lessons-learned framing invites the obvious question about whatever came next. Presented to the CIAT colloquium of June 2010 that sought to establish a national watershed policy, its function in that session was to stop the exercise starting from zero.

Geography

Keywords

bassins versants, historique, structures mécaniques, murs secs, canaux de contour, food for work, cash for work, agroforesterie, structures biologiques, leçons apprises, CIAT

Entities

CIAT

Full Document Text

Extracted text from the original document for search indexing.

Historique des interventions en aménagement de bassins versants et leçons apprises Périodisation • 1950-60: Une multiplicité d’actions • 1960-80: Accent sur structures mécaniques (murs secs, canaux de contour), food et cash for work • 1980-2000: Agroforesterie et structures biologiques, approche « parcelle » • 2000-2010: Les mécanismes de marché comme incitation à l’extension des cultures pérennes Synthèse des leçons apprises • Les paysans adoptent des espèces et des techniques de culture protectrices du milieu quand les bénéfices justifient le travail investi • Priorité aux aménagements de ravines • Subventionner le matériel végétal • Elargir les débouchés rémunérateurs • Limiter les prélèvements commerciaux sur les cultures pérennes • Exploiter de nouvelles opportunités (canne, lait, transformation et travail du bois...) Leçons apprises (suite) • La structure “projet” est inadaptée à la tâche • Aucun projet n’a encore conduit à l’aménagement de l’ensemble d’un bassin versant • Des groupements d’agriculteurs peuvent permettre de passer à un échellon supérieur d’aménagement • Etablir des priorités Leçons apprises (suite) • Bien comprendre les questions foncières • Développer la formation des cadres et des agriculteurs • Pas de « prêt à porter » jusqu’ à présent mais des principes et quelques réussites utiles