Decree of 18 March 1968 naming as National Parks and Natural Sites all land carrying historic or natural monuments

The decree of 18 March 1968, published in Le Moniteur No. 23 of the same date under François Duvalier.

The preamble makes an early statement of ecosystem reasoning in Haitian law: the forest plays a first-rank role in the social and physical balance of the environment and is an inestimable resource for the wellbeing of urban and rural populations; it must be protected in order to preserve the relations between the living environment and the physical environment; and to that end weight should be given to international commitments, among them the 26th resolution of the sixth session of the FAO Conference of November 1951. It cites the law of 8 July 1921 on public utility recognition, the law of 3 February 1926 on reserved national forests, articles 182 to 190 of the Rural Code, and the law of 7 May 1936 on the Plaisance and Cerisier catchment.

The decree is the base instrument for every Haitian national park that followed, including the 1983 decree on Morne La Visite and Macaya and the 2017 arrêtés creating the Martissant, Canapé-Vert, Pèlerin and Saut-d'Eau parks, all held in this corpus. It also provides for a Caisse Nationale for preserving natural sites, an early example of earmarked conservation finance.