The Southern Department of Haiti is characterized by an important biodiversity, a rugged and fragmented landscape. Agriculture is the main activity and allows several thousand families to live. The agroforestry sector represents a major asset, both from an economic and environmental point of view: the “Creole garden”, combining shade wood, fruit, coffee, cocoa, tubers and other crops allows the maintenance of a wooded cover and protects the soils.
Within this sector, women play a fundamental but unrecognized role, particularly in the processing and marketing of products from these gardens, and for the adaptation of families to climate risks through the diversification of production and the preservation of the environment. Nevertheless, women and young people face many constraints including access to land, employment, quality inputs and technical knowledge.
Co-funded by Global Affairs Canada, the JADEN KREYOL project aims to develop coffee and cocoa-based agroforestry systems in the South by :
The installation of 250 hectares of new plantations and the innovative and sustainable management of these plantations by 800 families under the leadership of young people and women, in partnership with the network of coffee cooperatives RECOCAS and the technical support of the Haitian company AYITIKA;
Strengthening the power of women and girls, and women’s economic leadership in these sectors by strengthening their strategic and support roles and functions (with the expertise of the ID-Territories Canada research office)
Improving the capacities of actors in the coffee, cocoa and other products sectors from these wooded gardens, in particular cooperatives and peasant organizations, in management, marketing and ensuring better access to markets.
Moreover, the Southern Department is vulnerable to climate change, aggravating environmental degradation. To ensure the sustainability and sustainability of the actions, the project also seeks to:
Improve the capacity of producers to adapt to climate change.
Encourage the creation of skills on the adaptation of agroforestry to climate change through the adequacy of training courses in partnership with the University of Les Cayes;
Strengthen the governance capacities of local and departmental authorities on climate change adaptation.
Finally, the Jaden Kreyol Project will strengthen and network the strategic actors of these value chains on the cocoa, coffee and other forest garden products sectors, including cooperatives and producer groups, but also companies, local and regional universities, local authorities and the Haitian diaspora.
