Sixth National Biodiversity Report of Haiti

The report opens with Haiti's record under the Convention: signed in 1992 and ratified in 1996, with first and fifth national reports submitted in 1998 and 2016, the second to fourth not submitted, and no finished 2011-2020 national biodiversity strategy, which meant progress against national targets and the Aichi targets could not be measured. It was prepared by consultants with the Ministry's Biodiversity Directorate and UNDP through stakeholder meetings, regional workshops in Sud, Sud-Est, Nord and Nord-Est, a document review and case studies. It inventories the flora and fauna (between 5,000 and 5,600 vascular plant species, 36% endemic; 245 to 260 bird forms; 58 amphibian species) and lists the threats, among them overexploitation of forests and fish stocks, mangrove cutting, pollution and climate change.

The central results concern protected areas. Haiti had three before 2010; by 2018 it had 25 delimited and declared (11 marine and 14 terrestrial), covering 1,872 km2 on land (about 6.75% of land area) and 1,857 km2 at sea (4.72%). Reaching the Aichi target 11 thresholds of 17% and 10% by 2021 would need another 2,845.5 km2 on land and 2,074.6 km2 at sea, and the report lists 30 candidate sites. Only 4 of the 25 areas have a management plan. It proposes eight national targets with indicators for a 2019-2030 strategy and recommends a national awareness campaign, systematic university research, a national inventory of threatened species and a Haitian biodiversity trust fund to access the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund.