Much of the damage caused by the recent disasters from
Hurricanes Mitch and Georges in the Caribbean and Central
America was blamed on wide scale deforestation and poorly
planned housing. Millions of homes were damaged or
destroyed, and massive destruction of infrastructure took
place. Natural disasters are inevitable; however, damage
caused by future disasters can be reduced by careful
planning of new housing and the rehabilitation of
deforested and degraded lands that form catchments and
watersheds for housing developments, urban areas, and
important infrastructure. Billions of dollars of aid will
be spent in rehabilitating these devastated areas.
Simultaneously, these disasters provide windows of
opportunity that should be exploited, and as the saying
goes, when handed lemons, make lemonade.
It is incumbent upon donors to be innovative in their
thinking and planning on how to use their resources. It
would be wise for donors and host-governments to protect
these expenditures by investing in the rehabilitation of
catchment areas and watersheds to protect urban areas and
provide potable water, reforesting watersheds behind dams
which generate electricity, and revitalizing and
protecting mangrove areas. Healthy mangroves and coral
reefs protect shorelines against sea surges. Taking these
actions will reduce the scale of damage caused by future
storms--similar to an insurance policy to protect
investments.
Deforestation
Deforestation was a contributing factor to the extensive
damage from the recent hurricanes in Central America and
the Caribbean. Deforestation greatly decreases the
absorptive capacity of the soils and tree roots no longer
anchor the soil. Banana and plantain plantations that
provide a large number of jobs and export dollars were
virtually wiped out. Nonetheless in Honduras, "The
cropped sites with vegetation contours, rock walls and
tree fallows withstood the storm quite well, but sites
that did not have these investments were devastated by
massive landslides."1 An increased use of tree
windbreaks surrounding and within plantations would have
substantially reduced damage and economic loss.
Rainfall in some areas did exceed the capacity of the
soil and capability of the vegetation to stop the massive
run-off. Resulting soil erosion exacerbated the damage
and prolonged the floods by filling up channels that
normally accelerate drainage to the sea. It will take
years for the sediment to move though the drainage
systems. Because the carrying capacity of the streams and
rivers have been decreased, flooding will become more
frequent even from smaller storms. This makes it even
more important to plant erosion control barriers and
reforest catchment and watershed areas to decrease runoff
and further siltation in order to decrease this risk.
Also, a large amount of damage resulted from poorly or
un-planned expansion of urban areas, where houses were
built on slopes and on unstable soils. Since many of the
damaged houses were built on flood plains, if these
houses are rebuilt in the same places they will be
susceptible to flooding even from much smaller storms due
to the sedimentation of drainage systems. Poorly
constructed roads further undermined hillside stability.
These roads funneled runoff and exacerbated erosion and
mudslides in catchment areas that fed into housing areas.
A great fear of many is that the extensive destruction of
housing from the recent hurricanes will result in the
cutting of large amounts trees making additional areas
vulnerable to future storm damage.
Underlying causes of deforestation
There are many causes of
deforestation, including conversion to agriculture and
logging for export; however, in many of the urban areas
in developing countries, trees are mainly cut for
building materials and fuel. Wood and charcoal are most
often the main source of fuel for cooking, heat, and
small industries; e.g., bakeries, cleaners, distilleries.
Deforestation in these areas is a tragedy of the
"commons," and wood is seen as a free
commodity. Most often, government agencies either lack
the capacity or the political will to police these areas
to prevent cutting, and feel that they cannot deprive the
people of these basic necessities. Until (a) alternative
fuels and devices are provided to reduce consumption of
wood/charcoal (such as natural gas and improved charcoal
stoves2), (b) sustainable sources of wood are made
available,3 and (c) the tenure and management
responsibility of these areas are clearly defined, there
is little chance of getting ahead of the curve in
reforesting these areas.
Crosscutting issues
Energy is the single most
crosscutting issue in these disasters; wood/charcoal
energy as well as dams that generate electricity are both
dependent upon sustained natural resources. Electricity
is needed for economic development--urban dwellings,
industries and education. Deforestation of the watersheds
of these dams has reduced the generation capacity and the
productive life because of heavy siltation. The heavy
rains associated with the hurricanes rapidly filled these
dams to capacity. Because of poor planning and control,
massive amounts of water was released from the dams that
greatly increased the flooding and the destruction of
urban areas below the dams. In order to sustain
electricity generation and supply urban areas with needed
power, it is necessary to reforest the watersheds above
these dams.
When handed lemons, make lemonade
The large number of people that lost their livelihood,
both in the agricultural and industrial sectors, and
their homes because of the storms is tragic. However,
this also provides an opportunity to provide on-the-job
training in manual skills, such as carpentry and masonry,
and create jobs to rebuild houses. Additional work can be
created to plant living hedgerows and trees to control
erosion in catchment areas, watersheds, and along roads
and stream banks. There is also the opportunity to
develop community organizations and improve relationships
within communities to create self-help projects including
neighbors helping neighbors rebuild each other's houses;
urban forestry groups to plant trees; and riparian users
associations to manage catchment/watershed areas for
potable water supplies.
Additionally, many of the urban housing areas lacked
adequate sanitation and supplies of potable water.
Rebuilding these areas offers donors and host-governments
the opportunity to correct these inadequacies by funding
the installation of water-sealed toilets,5 and digging
wells for potable water.
Food for work
The storms destroyed crops in many
areas and put large numbers of people out of work.
Although immediate food relief is needed, giving away
food for prolonged periods often creates as many problems
as it solves. Food-for-work allows people to maintain
their dignity, while providing a way to pay for labor
needed to rebuild housing, repair roads, create and
construct erosion control barriers, and plant trees for
both urban forestry and catchment/watershed
rehabilitation. A special focus should be placed on the
rehabilitation of areas that provide services to urban
populations; e.g., electricity generating dams, and
catchment areas for potable water.
Housing
Subsidized housing construction programs should be
conditioned on avoiding reconstruction in hazard prone
areas; e.g., flood plains and unstable slopes. To make
this determination, the areas should be surveyed and
mapped. Land that has no apparent use and relative little
value, such as steep hillsides, flood plains, and
wetlands, are common sites for informal settlements. The
increase spread of human settlements into fragile
ecological zones destabilize natural ecosystems. In
unplanned communities, the built environment can block
natural drainage patterns, contributing to erosion and
flooding that can destroy property and lives. Stagnant,
undrained pools of water can become breeding grounds for
disease-carrying insects. Artificial drainage systems can
be installed to help channel stormwater runoff and reduce
its destructive force. Effective drainage can also reduce
the presence of stagnant standing water that hosts
disease-carrying insects.
Because residents of informal settlements rarely own the
land they live on and do not pay taxes to support urban
services and infrastructure, municipalities often neglect
to include them in service provision schemes. As a
result, water is generally in short supply and unpure,
sanitation services are primitive, and solid waste
collection is limited. The impact on the environment and
on residents' health and living conditions can be
profound.
Community-based approaches
Rebuilding housing with
community-based approaches allows interventions to be
tailored to local circumstances and income levels.
Community-based approaches assures that solutions are
matched to people's priorities, addresses problems at
their source, it empowers the settlement's residents and
mobilizes resources and generates income within the
community. Ultimately, community-based interventions
build upon and enhance local capacity by promoting
community cohesiveness, indigenous leadership skills, and
local self-reliance.
Self-help and participatory low-cost housing--Two types
of low-cost housing are wood-frame and Cinva-Ram brick
houses. Building these house would require of a large
number of people trained in manual skills, such as
carpentry and masonry. This is best accomplished by a
program to train trainers. First you train a core of
people on how to train others constructing houses. These
trainers then go into communities, and train these people
to build houses, neighbors helping to build each other's
houses. Again, Food-for-Work can be used to maintain
these people during reconstruction.
The Trade and Investment division of USDA has a program
that finances workshops on wood-frame housing to promote
the use and export of wood products.7 Cinva-Ram earth
blocks are made from a mixture of soil and cement
compressed in a press-machine easily fabricated in local
machine shops. The Cinva-Ram bricks have a consistency
and durability somewhat comparable to a kiln-fired brick.
Wood paucity and surplus for housing--In the Dominican
Republic, Hurricane Georges resulted in a large blow-down
of trees, in excess of local milling capacity. There is a
need for an immediate investment in increasing the
milling capacity to exploit this resource before the wood
rots on the ground. Any additional milling capacity
should be installed on a temporary basis under contract
and closely supervised to ensure that sound environmental
practices are followed. If the milled wood is in excess
of needs to rebuild houses in the Dominican Republic, the
excess could be exported to wood deficient countries in
Central America.
In Central America, there will be a need for a large
amount of housing material, such as sawn-wood. If cut
locally, it will exacerbate deforestation and make
additional areas vulnerable to severe damage from future
storms. To prevent further deterioration of the
environment, it is recommended that wood be imported from
the U.S. In the past, wood has been provided as an
emergency relief commodity to El Salvador and Jamaica.
Through programs run by the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, wood products have also been provided under
the PL-480 Title 1 Program to Jamaica and Costa Rica, and
under the work for progress program to Panama. Wood could
also be purchased under USAID's Commercial Import
Program.
However, all wood should be treated
against insects and rot to increase the life of the
houses. Since there may be a fuelwood shortage in some
areas, it may be problematic that some of the imported
wood is diverted for fuel. Therefore, wood salvaged from
destroyed house should be used for this purpose.
Hedgerows, trees and roads
Vetiver Hedgerows--Trees take several
years to establish extensive root systems necessary to
anchor the soil to prevent slides and reduce erosion,
whereas, vetiver grass planted on the contour of
hillsides begins reducing erosion within the first year.
A recent study in Honduras, shows that erosion was
reduced from "92 tons of soil/ha/year on
slash-and-burn areas to 0.9 tons/ha/yr on areas protected
by vetiver hedgerows."8 Vetiver hedgerows are not
invasive, and are propagated by cuttings only.9 There are
a number of cooperators in Central America and the
Caribbean working with the Vetiver Network,10 and
planting materials are available in country. Establishing
the hedgerows are labor intensive at first, but require
little maintenance after establishment.
Not only do hedgerows mitigate erosion, but they increase
the survival, growth and production of trees and annual
crops planted behind the hedges by increasing the
availability of nutrients and moisture. For example in
China, "Tea yields increased by 40% when grown in
conjunction with vetiver grass hedges, and vetiver hedges
are much cheaper and more effective than
terraces."11 Natural terraces begin forming behind
vetiver hedges soon after planting. This technology
should also work well with coffee. In Central America and
the Caribbean, coffee is a very important export crop and
the industry employs a large number of people. Much of
the coffee is grown in plantation settings that are
erosion prone and produce high levels of pollution from
chemical fertilizer runoff. Vetiver hedgerows filter
these nutrients, keeping them in place and reducing the
need for chemical fertilizer application. They also
provide mulch to improve soil texture and carbon content.
Vetiver hedgerows can also be very valuable in preventing
erosion and water damage within housing areas, when
planted between rows of houses and to protect roads in
housing areas. This should be coupled with urban tree
planting. When planted along embankments and in catchment
areas, vetiver hedgerows can also reduce erosion of
roadsides. They are also extremely important in reducing
stream bank erosion and sediment loads in streams.
Tree selection and urban forestry--Trees
for reforestation should be selected for fast-growth and
ability to regrow (coppice) after cutting. Regrowth is
much faster from the coppiced stump, which would increase
wood availability for fuel and other uses. Often local
trees do not regrow after cutting, which accelerates
deforestation. Leguminous trees have these qualities, and
are well suited for reforesting catchment areas and
watersheds. For example, Acacia mangium, called the
"green machete" in the Dominican Republic
because of its good growth on degraded lands, serves as a
nurse crop for other tree species and produces marketable
timber within eight years.12 Once microclimatic
conditions are restored on degrades sites, mixed native
species will often reestablish themselves and a mixed
species forest will evolve. However, it may be necessary
to do enrichment plantings of other species on severely
degraded sites at a later date to avoid monocultures.
Trees planted in urban and peri-urban environments have
value beyond their aesthetic appeal that is now being
recognized and appreciated. Ecological and economic
values can be very significant. For example, existing
tree cover in urban settings in the United States already
provides over $4 billion in annual energy savings with
total benefits being much higher. Beyond energy savings,
urban forestry can benefit developing countries through
cooling urban areas; improving air quality and water
quality and quantity; reducing noise, erosion and water
runoff; increasing biodiversity; and providing tree
products for local use.
Minimum impact roads--The U.S. Agency for International
Development, in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service,
funded the development of Minimum Impact Rural Roads: A
Training Manual with Emphasis on Environmental Planning,
Drainage, Slope Stabilization, and Erosion Control
(Spanish only),14 and the Forest Service has conducted
workshops through Latin America on this subject.
References
1Thurow, T. 1998. Silver-lining to Hurricane Mitch (in
draft). Soil Management Collaborative Research Support
Program/Texax A&M University.
2Jones, M., et.al. 1989 Energy Efficient Stoves in East
Africa: An Assessment of the Kenya Ceramic Jiko (Stove)
Program. S&T Office of Energy. U.S. Agency for
International Development, Washington, DC.
3de Miranda, R.C. Forest Replacement: An Effective Model
to Achieve Sustainability by Fuelwood Consumers. in
UNASYLVA (in press). FAO, Rome.
4anon. 1998. Juntos Podemos Cuidarla: Fondo para la
Conservacion del Auga. Quite, Ecuador.
___ 1998. Water: Together We Can Care For It! The Nature
Conservancy, Quito, Ecuador.
5Benge, M. D., 1990. Participatory Low-Cost Housing.
S&T/FENR Agro-forestation Series #36. U.S. Agency for
International Development, Washington, DC.
6anon. 1992. Partnership for a Livable Environment.
Cooperative Housing Foundation, Washington, DC.i
7Thallon, R. 1991. Graphic Guide to Frame Coonstruction.
The Taunton Press. Available from: Mark Hawthorn, USDA
Trade and Investment Office, Tel. (202) 690-1858
8Toness, A.S., T.L. Thurow and H.El. Sierra. April 1998.
Sustainable Management of Tropical Steeplands: An
Assessment of Terraces as a Soil and Water Conservation
Technology. Technical Bulletin No. 98-1. Soil Management
Collaborative Research Support Program/Texas A&M
University. 52p.
Thurow, T.L. and J.E. Smith, Jr. April 1998. Assessment
of Soil and Water Conservation Methods Applied to the
Cultivated Steeplands of Southern Honduras. April 1998.
Technical Bulletin No. 98-2. Soil Management
Collaborative Research Support Program/Texas A&M
University. 21p
9National Research Council. 1993. Vetiver Grass: A thin
green line against erosion. National Academy Press,
Washington, DC.,
10Vetiver Network. Joan Miller, Coordinadora - La Red
Latinoamericana del Vetiver,
Apdo. 173-2020, Centro Postal Zapote, San Jose, Costa
Rica;
Tel: (506) 224-0960; FAX: (560) 222-6556;
correo-electronico: [email protected];
Pagina de Internet: https://www.vetiver.org/LAVNsite.htm
11Ding Guan Min, Soil and Water Conservation Bureau,
Fujian Province, China. in The Vetiver Network
Newsletter, No. 18. December 1997. Home page:
http://www.vetiver.com
12National Research Council. 1983. Mangium and Other
Fast-Growing Acacias for the Humid Tropics. National
Academy Press, Washington, DC.,
13Benge, M.D. 1996 The Economic and Ecological Value of
Trees in Urban Environments. Center for Environment, U.S.
Agency for International Development, Washington, DC..
14Keller, G. J. Bauer and M.Aldana. 1996. Minimum Impact
Rural Roads: A Training Manual with Emphasis on
Environmental Planning, Drainage, Slope Stabilization,
and Erosion Control. USAID-USDA Forest Service,
Guatemalan Roads Ministry. pp. 800.
Copies of this paper and other publications shown avove
are available from Mike Benge, Global Bureau, Center for
Environment, U.S. Agency for International Development,
Washington, DC. Tel: (202) 712-4048
u:\mbenge\docs\lemons\12\16\99
Attached is a paper I wrote (with imput from others in
G/ENV) on Hurricanes Mitch and Georges--Disasters and
Naatural Resources: when handed lemons, make lemonade.
In the paper,I outline the relationship of degraded
natural resources to the extensive damage caused by the
hurricanes. I have also identified how the issues of
damage and recovery cross cut issues of natural resources
management, energy programs and urban planning; the
importance of sustained natural resources in the recovery
from these disasters and in mitigating damages from
future storms; and some innovative approaches in using
sustained natural resource management in solving problems
caused by the storms. Let me know if you would like any
of the referenced documenets. Regards, MikeB
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