Haiti National Trust

Last updated
Haiti National Trust
HNT Logo.png
Founded2015
FoundersPhilippe Bayard
S. Blair Hedges
Focus Conservation
Location
Area served
Haiti
Method Scientific research
Revenue
Donations
Website haititrust.org

Haiti National Trust is an international, non-governmental, and non-profit environmental organization dedicated to protecting the biodiversity of Haiti. The Haiti National Trust seeks to establish more protected areas, including national parks, and to stop the destruction of forests, which is the primary cause of species loss in Haiti. The trust also advocates protection of the country's fragile coral reefs and coastal ecosystems. It was founded in 2015 by Philippe Bayard, president and founding member of the Audubon Society of Haiti, and S. Blair Hedges, Laura H. Carnell Professor and director of the Center for Biodiversity at Temple University. [1]

Contents

Mission

Haiti National Trust's mission is to "identify the biodiversity hotspots of Haiti, acquire land for parks, and establish long-term protective measures". [1] It works with the government of Haiti to assist in the protection of their existing national parks, and to help establish new parks.

Hot spots of biodiversity

Tiburon Stream Frog (Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus) Tiburon Stream Frog.jpg
Tiburon Stream Frog (Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus)

The Caribbean Islands are recognized as a global hot spot of biodiversity. [2] Because Haiti has a rich biodiversity which is nearly all threatened because old growth forests have been reduced to one or a few percent of their original extent, the country itself is considered a hot spot. [3] The Haiti National Trust goes one step further and defines biodiversity hot spots within Haiti, most of which are at the tops of remote mountains where the last patches of original forest remain. Scientists and associates of the trust continue to search for these hot spots, usually with a helicopter, and have so far identified 12: Bellevue, Bois Pangnol, Deux Mamelles, Grand Bois, Grande Colline, La Gonâve, La Selle, La Visite, Macaya, Morne Basile, Morne Boeuf, and Tête Boeuf. [1] Two of those, La Visite and Macaya, were the two original national parks of Haiti and their biodiversity has been studied by teams of biologists in the past. [4] [5] Most of the remaining hot spots were poorly known or unknown before teams of biologists and students, led by the Haiti National Trust cofounders, visited the sites to survey vertebrates, selected plants, and other species. [1] This work led to the discovery of new species of lizards, [6] frogs, and plants, and the rediscovery of vertebrates and plants thought to be extinct such as the Tiburon stream frog ( Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus ), La Hotte twig anole ( Anolis darlingtoni ), and Ekman's magnolia ( Magnolia ekmanii ). [1]

New national parks established

The initial three biodiversity hot spots identified by Haiti National Trust cofounders and their team were declared national parks by Haitian president, Michel Martelly, and his government. Grande Colline National Park (PNN-GC) was established on 23 July 2014 and is 1,510 hectares. [7] Grand Bois National Park (PNN-GB) was established on 23 September 2015 and is 370 hectares. [8] Deux Mamelles National Park (PNN-DM) was established on 23 September 2015 and is 2,265 hectares. [8] Previously there were only two national parks in Haiti, both established in 1983: Pic Macaya National Park (PNNM) and La Visite National Park.

See also

Related Research Articles

A biodiversity hotspot is a biogeographic region with significant levels of biodiversity that is threatened by human habitation.

Morne Trois Pitons National Park World Heritage Site in Dominica

Morne Trois Pitons National Park is a national park in Dominica established in July 1975, the first to be legally established in the country. It became a World Heritage Site in 1997. The park is named after its highest mountain, Morne Trois Pitons, meaning mountain of three peaks. The park is an area of significant volcanic activity. Features within the park include the Valley of Desolation, a region of boiling mud ponds and small geysers; the Boiling Lake; Titou Gorge; and Emerald Pool. The mountain is the second-highest peak in Dominica, being exceeded only by Morne Diablotins.

Pic Macaya National Park

Pic Macaya National Park is one of two national parks of the Republic of Haiti. It is located in the country's southern peninsula, within the Massif de la Hotte. Featuring the country's last stand of virgin cloud forest, it encompasses more than 8,000 hectares. Elevations in the rugged park reach a maximum height of 2,347 meters above sea level at Pic Macaya, the second highest point in Haiti behind Pic la Selle. A majority of the park is composed of two tall peaks: Pic Macaya and Pic Formon.

La Visite National Park

La Visite National Park is one of the two largest national parks of the Republic of Haiti. La Visite is a part of the Massif de la Selle mountain range. Its highest peak is 2275 meters in elevation. The park covers approximately 11,419 hectares of land with 1897 hectares above 2000 meters in elevation, and consists mainly of pine forest, grasslands, and some montane broadleaf forest at an altitude above 1,700 m (5,600 ft). The Haitian government established the La Visite National Park in 1983. The capital, Port-au-Prince, is only 22 kilometers north from the park. The northern boundary of La Visite National Park is the east-west running escarpment of the Massif de la Selle.

Pic Macaya is the second-highest mountain in Haiti, rising to an elevation of 2,347 metres above sea level. It is located in the Massif de la Hotte, 36 kilometres northwest of Les Cayes and 195 km (121 mi) west of Port-au-Prince. The mountain is located in the Pic Macaya National Park.

The spiny giant frog or Norton's robber frog, Eleutherodactylus nortoni, is a species of frog in the family Eleutherodactylidae. It is named after James W. Norton who accompanied Albert Schwartz in his 1974 expedition to Hispaniola and collected the holotype.

<i>Eleutherodactylus oxyrhyncus</i> Species of frog

Eleutherodactylus oxyrhyncus is a species of frog in the family Eleutherodactylidae. It is endemic to Hispaniola and known from the Massif de la Hotte and Massif de la Selle, occurring in both the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The common name is rednose robber frog.

<i>Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus</i> Species of frog

Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus is a species of frog in the family Eleutherodactylidae. It is endemic to Haiti and known from the Massif de la Hotte and Massif de la Selle. Its common name is foothill robber frog. Its natural habitat is streams and their vicinity in mesic hardwood forest at elevations of 303–1,697 m (994–5,568 ft) asl.

<i>Eleutherodactylus thorectes</i> Species of amphibian

Eleutherodactylus thorectes is a species of frog in the family Eleutherodactylidae. It is endemic to Haiti and known from the Massif de la Hotte at high elevations. Specifically, it is known from Pic Macaya and Pic Formon at elevations of 1,700–2,340 m (5,580–7,680 ft) asl. Its natural habitats are closed pine montane forest and cloud forest with shrubs, tree ferns, bromeliads, and climbing bamboo. With a snout-vent length of 12–15 mm, this slightly arboreal species is one of the smallest of the world's frogs. It is threatened by habitat loss caused by charcoal logging and agriculture. It is known from the Pic Macaya National Park, but habitat degradation is occurring in the park too.

The Massif de la Hotte is a mountain range in southwestern Haiti, on the Tiburon Peninsula. About 2.5 million years ago, Massif de la Hotte was separated from the Massif de la Selle by a deep, wide sea channel, and formed a separate island. This resulted in a hotbed of endemism in la Hottes bird, plant, and reptile communities. The Massif de la Hotte is subdivided into the Oriental la Hotte in the East, the central la Hotte and the Occidental la Hotte on the Western tip of the Tiburon peninsula. The Occidental la Hotte is relatively remote and is one of the most biologically diverse and significant areas of all of Hispaniola. It also supports some of the last stands of Haiti's dense cloud forest on its peaks.

Morne is an Old-French word for a small mountain. It may refer to:

Wildlife of Haiti

The wildlife of Haiti is important to the country because of its biodiversity. According to the World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Haiti is considered to be "one of the most biologically significant countries of the West Indies". With an estimated 5,600 plant species on the island of Hispaniola, some of which only occur in Haiti, 36% are considered as endemic to the island. A mountainous area country, it is situated in the western three-eighths of Hispaniola and shares a border with the Dominican Republic. There are nine life zones, from low desert to high cloud forests, as well as four mountain ranges, and hundreds of rivers and streams and the coral reefs in the seas that surround the islands. Issues of environmental damage, expanding population, deforesting and erosion are of concern; less than 2% of the original forest remains on account of deforestation. This degradation is traced from the 17th century to 19th century starting with the French colonization of the Haiti and population explosion during the 20th century and for the purpose of forestry and sugar-related industries, degraded the forests. and the environment.

Stephen Blair Hedges Professor of evolutionary biology

Stephen Blair Hedges is Laura H. Carnell Professor of Science and director of the Center for Biodiversity at Temple University where he researches the tree of life and leads conservation efforts in Haiti and elsewhere. He co-founded Haiti National Trust.

Communal section

The communal section is the smallest administrative division in Haiti. The 144 communes are further divided into 571 communal sections.

Grand Bois National Park National park in Haiti

Grand Bois National Park is a national park in Haiti. It was established on September 23, 2015, by Haitian president, Michel Martelly. The park is located in southwest Haiti, northwest of Les Anglais and it includes all areas on the mountain Morne Grand Bois of 900 meter elevation and higher. Morne Grand Bois sits directly on the border between the Sud department and the Grand'Anse department. Its highest peak is 1262 meters in elevation. Morne Grand Bois is an isolated mountain with remnant original (primary) rainforest.

Grande Colline National Park

Grande Colline National Park is a national park in Haiti established on July 23, 2014 with an area of 1,510 hectares. The park contains the Grande Colline mountain range at the core of the Occidental La Hotte Massif in southwestern Haiti, west of Pic Macaya. There are five named peaks: Morne Desbarrières, Morne Grande Colline, Morne Petite Colline, Morne Grenouille, and Morne Lézard.

Deux Mamelles National Park

Deux Mamelles National Park is a national park in Haiti established on September 23, 2015 with an area of 2,265 hectares. It is located on the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti, just west of a line connecting Les Anglais to the south and Jérémie to the north. The park circumscribes a U-shaped mountain, Morne Deux Mamelles, reaching 1,276 meters in elevation and is the highest mountain at the western end of the Tiburon Peninsula. Patches of the original (primary) forest remain at elevations above 1,000 meters, growing on highly dissected limestone rock.

<i>Wercklea hottensis</i> Species of flowering plant

Wercklea hottensis is a species of Malvaceae endemic to the mountains of the Massif de la Hotte in South-Western Haiti.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Haiti National Trust. "Haiti National Trust" . Retrieved 2016-02-03.
  2. ↑ Smith, M. L., S. B. Hedges, W. Buck, A. Hemphill, S. Inchaustegui, M. Ivie, D. Martina, M. Maunder, and J. F. Ortega. 2005. Caribbean Islands. Pp 112-118 in R. A. Mittermeier, P. R. Gil, M. Hoffman, J. Pilgrim, T. Brooks, C. G. Mittermeier, J. Lamoreux, and G. A. B. da Fonseca (eds.), Hotspots revisited: Earth's biologically richest and most endangered terrestrial ecoregions. Mexico City: CEMEX
  3. ↑ Hedges, S. B., and C. A. Woods. 1993. Caribbean hot spot. Nature 364:375
  4. ↑ Woods CA, Ottenwalder JA. The natural history of southern Haiti. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida; 1992
  5. ↑ Woods CA, Sergile FE, Ottenwalder JA. Stewardship plan for the national parks and natural areas of Haiti. Florida Museum of Natural History, University of Florida; 1992.
  6. ↑ Köhler G, Hedges SB. 2016. A revision of the green anoles of Hispaniola with description of eight new species (Reptilia, Squamata, Dactyloidae). Novitates Caribaea 9: 1-135
  7. ↑ Le Moniteur, Journal Officiel de la Republique d’Haiti, No. 158, 21 August 2014
  8. 1 2 Le Moniteur, Journal Officiel de la Republique d’Haiti, No. 193, 8 October 2015
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