Edgar Griffin has lived on this hillside outside the town of
Petit Guave for 80 years. He says when he was young, it was lush
and green. So green, he says, "You couldn't see a house across
from you because it was so green." Not anymore. Today the
mountains are brown and barren. Farmers here try to grow
peanuts, but the fertile topsoil washes away in the rain. "Now,
when people plant peanuts, they don't produce as much because
the good soil goes into the ocean," says engineer Roudy Valmy
with the U.N. International Organization for Migration (IOM).
Clearing land for farming remains the main cause of
deforestation worldwide, according to the UN Food and
Agriculture Organization. But in Haiti, the loss of tree cover -
and the soil erosion that results - has made it much harder for
farmers to grow food, worsening the hunger and poverty already
gripping the country. Ninety-eight percent of the country's
forests have been cut down, largely to make charcoal - the main
cooking fuel in Haiti - where alternatives are u