In Haiti, some 10 million people depend on charcoal for their main source of cooking fuel. The demand for charcoal is so great that teams of tree cutters fell acre after acre of Haiti's tropical forests. Even in national parks deforestation is taking place at alarming rates. The tree cutters convert the wood they gather to charcoal which they sell in cities such as Port-au-Prince. This clear-cutting practice is so widespread that today just one percent of Haiti's original forest remains intact. Such vast deforestation has devastated the wildlife of Haiti.
Of particular concern are Haiti's frog species. The forests of Haiti provide habitat for 50 species of frogs and 46 of those species are threatened. Since 30 of Haiti's frog species live nowhere else in the world, they will become extinct if their habitat in Haiti is destroyed.
Now, scientists and conservation organizations have come together to try and establish a brighter future for Haiti's rarest frogs. Blair Hedges, a professor of biology at Pennsylvania State University, is working with the Philadelphia Zoo to set up a captive breeding program for rare Haitian frogs. With funding provided by the National Science Foundation, Hedges has led several rescue missions to Haiti to search for rare frogs. He has already discovered five new species of frogs. Hedges captures many of the frogs he finds and brings them back to the Philadelphia Zoo where they can be bred in captivity. So far, Hedges and his colleagues have collected ten of Haiti's critically endangered frog species from the wild. Their efforts have already started to pay off. One of the species housed at the zoo has already produced hatchlings.
Haiti has suffered many environmental and human disasters. In January 2010, the country was struck by a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake that left much of Port-au-Prince and other areas in ruins. More recently, the country has been battling a cholera outbreak. In the midst of these human struggles, the natural environment of Haiti is also suffering. Without the immediate action by international conservation organizations and government agencies, Haiti will surely experience widening habitat destruction and mass extinctions.
Photo © Claudio Contreras.
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