Tet Ansanm: working with "Heads Together" in Haitian reforestation

Presented at the Spring 2014 Center for Collaborative Conservation (https://collaborativeconservation.org/) Seminar and Discussion Series, "Collaborative Conservation in Practice: Innovations in Communities around the World", February 25, 2014, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado. This series focused on the work that the CCC's Collaborative Conservation Fellows have been doing across the Western U.S. and around the world.John McGreevy is an environmental anthropologist with a passion for the people of rural Haiti. After witnessing the 2010 Earthquake, he set out to improve understanding of vulnerability to environmental degradation in the country. John is currently teaching a course called New Orleans and the Caribbean at CSU with an emphasis on how Caribbean culture and environmental interaction have formed through the relations of European and African peoples. Starting in the summer of 2014, John will use lessons learned as a 4th Cohort CCC Fellow to lead a new partnership between Haitian and U.S. church communities. This partnership will address environmental issues in Haiti's Central Plateau with a Tet Ansanm mindset.Recorded speech and PowerPoint presentation.Haiti's area of forest cover has dropped from 80% to less than 2% since the arrival of foreign influence in 1492. Yet, Haitians remain closely intertwined with the environment, depending on trees for food, shade, building materials, medicine, and protection against hurricanes. Organizations have attempted to reforest Haiti, but 50 years of planting has provided only temporary tree cover. From lack of sustainable outcomes, conservation professionals now cite the need for cultural knowledge and Haitian input. Qualitative research near Anse Rouge, Haiti has harnessed aspects from different knowledge types and helped to situate this deforestation in a historical context. This seminar addresses the history of deforestation, the culture of tree use, and how to work Tet Ansanm or "With Heads Together" to combat the deforestation that plagues Haiti