Communities in Haiti’s South Department are increasingly exposed to climate hazards, including hurricanes, floods, and droughts, with climate change driving increasingly erratic weather patterns characterised by long dry periods and heavy rainfall. We spoke to Senior consultant Anne Gander, who worked on the project: Land Degradation Neutrality Initiative in Southern Haiti. This was a GEF project the E Co. team implemented for the Food and Agriculture Organisation. While we are widely recognised for our GCF expertise, this project highlights our expanding GEF portfolio across the GEF multiple trust funds, such as the GEF Trust Fund (GEFTF) and Global Biodiversity Framework Fund (GBFF). By applying systemic, integrated, and whole-of-government approaches that connect local, national, and global priorities, we deliver policy-coherent programmes with lasting socio-economic and ecological impact, as the world gears up for the July 2026 – June 2030 GEF‑9 investment period and accelerating progress toward 2030 environmental goals.
1. What makes this project particularly important for the country’s climate priorities or vulnerabilities?
Haiti is one of the most exposed countries in the world to climate hazards, including hurricanes, floods, and droughts. Climate change projections for the South Department indicate increasingly erratic weather patterns characterised by severe swings between long dry periods and heavy, concentrated rainfall. This project is uniquely important because it directly addresses the intersection of these severe climate vulnerabilities with the country’s severe environmental degradation.
Haiti’s vulnerability to climate change is severely exacerbated by widespread deforestation and unsustainable agricultural practices, which have led to massive soil erosion, loss of biodiversity, and declining agricultural productivity. When intense downpours from tropical storms hit steep, deforested hillsides, they trigger massive soil erosion and devastating landslides. This runoff cascades downstream, leading to severe flooding in the lowlands and damaging coastal ecosystems. Ultimately, this combination of climate shocks and environmental degradation destroys local agricultural productivity and heavily exacerbates food insecurity and poverty for the vulnerable populations living in the South Department.
The project tackles land degradation by enhancing governance and institutional frameworks to reach Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN). Its strategy includes the restoration of critical ecosystems and the adoption of climate-resilient production methods, alongside empowering farmers through capacity building to improve soil conservation and sustainable livelihoods. Consequently, the project not only restores ecosystems but directly boosts agricultural productivity and food security, giving vulnerable rural households the economic stability needed to plan for and withstand climate risks. The project is also aligned with Haiti’s national climate and environmental strategies, including its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) and the National Adaptation Action Plan (PANA). By promoting an integrated, community-led approach to rehabilitate agroecological zones, the project actively operationalises the government’s objectives to transition the agricultural sector toward a more resilient and sustainable path.
2. How did our technical and strategic support strengthen the project’s climate rationale, adaptation planning, or mitigation logic?
Although the project focuses on the GEF’s focal area of ‘land degradation’, it delivers a range of climate change co-benefits by increasing the resilience of farmers’ livelihoods in the Southern Department. E Co.’s expertise in the design of climate change and environmental projects enabled the team to maintain focus on the project’s key area of land degradation whilst emphasising the link to climate change adaptation. Our expertise was crucial in identifying the key problems and drivers of land degradation, their interlinkage with climate change and for formulating a robust project that will deliver clear global environmental benefits, as well as co-benefits for climate change adaptation.
3. How will the project’s impact directly support communities, strengthen national resilience, and contribute to long-term sustainable development?
The project directly supports communities by enhancing local livelihoods and increasing food and water security through the implementation of Sustainable Land Management (SLM) practices. Using a proven Farmer Field School (FFS) approach developed by the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the project will train at least 4,536 smallholder farmers in climate-resilient agriculture. Farmers will gain access to improved, high-quality seeds from local artisanal producers, enabling them to increase crop yields while producing more nutritious food. Under a ‘Source-to-Sea’ (S2S) integrated landscape approach, the project will restore 2,200 hectares of degraded land using agroforestry and energy woodlots, helping to rebuild the natural resource base, improve topsoil quality, reduce erosion, and enhance water retention capacity.
Additionally, the project reinforces national governance by training 123 government officials from the Ministry of Environment (MoE) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MARNDR) to effectively integrate LDN targets and SLM practices into national policies and regional action plans. To contribute to long-term sustainable development, the project fosters strong community ownership through the creation of permanent local landscape restoration committees, ensuring that SLM practices continue well beyond the project’s eight-year lifespan. The project also strongly emphasises empowerment and equity by ensuring women hold at least 50% of positions in landscape restoration committees.
Environmentally, the project will generate significant carbon sequestration, mitigating an estimated 110,900 tCO2-eq by 2033 and up to 476,238 tCO2-eq over twenty years, while protecting biodiversity by reducing reliance on primary forests for charcoal production. Finally, a robust knowledge management and communication strategy; utilising mobile apps, community radio, and national awareness campaigns, will disseminate lessons learned to scale up these sustainable practices nationwide.
