Overview:
Deep in Haiti’s southern mountains, Pic Macaya Nationwide Park shelters uncommon species discovered nowhere else on Earth. However this biodiversity haven—key to Haiti’s water provide and ecological future—faces mounting threats from deforestation and catastrophe. A community of conservationists is racing to guard what’s left earlier than it’s too late.
When the male spiny giant frog needs to be intimate with a feminine, he lets out 5 rising whistles that finish with a semi-whistle. This charming mating name is barely ever heard within the one place on earth the place that kind of amphibian exists: Hispaniola, the island that Haiti and the Dominican Republic share. Particularly, in Haiti’s Pic Macaya Nationwide Park.
Ecologists with the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species who described the amphibian’s name can solely theorize that it’s nonetheless dwelling in Macaya. Since nobody is aware of whether or not these 5 whistles have sounded in recent times, the scientists have positioned the spiny big frog, or Eleutherodactylus nortoni, within the Critically Endangered class.
For some, the potential to find or rediscover uncommon, endangered, or endemic wildlife—species discovered nowhere else on Earth—factors to a serious purpose the park exists and should be protected.
“From a biodiversity perspective, the Pic Macaya Park is one in every of Haiti’s biggest riches,”
Stevins Alexis, Macaya Basis for Native Growth
“Macaya Nationwide Park is essential for conserving Haitian wildlife, with some species threatened with extinction,” Stevins Alexis, president of the Macaya Basis for Native Growth, instructed The Haitian Instances in a cellphone interview from the realm.
Pic Macaya National Park is Haiti’s largest protected space, measuring almost 60,000 acres of land throughout two departments and 10 communes, based on the Ministry of the Atmosphere. As a wildlife haven within the Caribbean, it shelters hundreds of species, together with some discovered nowhere else on earth. Macaya additionally serves because the water supply for the South and Grand’Anse departments, encompassing various ecosystems reminiscent of mountain forests, rivers, waterfalls, and karstic and volcanic formations.
Like a lot of Haiti’s southern peninsula, the park has been devastated by pure disasters, together with Hurricane Matthew in 2016 and an 8.2-magnitude earthquake in 2021. These catastrophes, coupled with folks in want turning to the realm’s bounty, have severely destroyed or endangered a few of its wildlife. A wildfire in 2023 worsened the problem of preserving this pure treasure.
Many conservationists say sustaining the park requires extra sustained consideration from Haiti’s decisionmakers, along with efforts by native environmental safety organizations.
“From a biodiversity perspective, the Pic Macaya Park is one in every of Haiti’s biggest riches,” Alexis mentioned. “We are going to do the whole lot to make sure that this supply of wealth advantages the encircling inhabitants, with out endangering life within the area.”
A wealth of wildlife in peril
Positioned within the Massif de la Hotte chains of mountains of southern Haiti, Pic Macaya Nationwide Park stretches between two summits — the 7,700-foot Pic Macaya and seven,280-foot Pic Formon. In accordance with the Ministry of the Atmosphere, Jean-Claude Duvalier’s authorities first established it by decree in 1983, designating almost 5,000 acres for preservation. A 2013 presidential decree expanded the park to 21,640 acres, adopted a yr later by annexation of close by areas that introduced Macaya to 59,300 acres.
In 2016, UNESCO declared the mountain vary a Biosphere Reserve, which makes it a part of the worldwide UNESCO Man and Biosphere Community, based on a UN Atmosphere Programme’s press release.
Nonetheless, designating the realm as protected, with out offering sources to help preservation, did not cease what a 2004 report referred to as “the rampant extraction of pure sources.”
“Though establishing efficient conservation packages in unstable nations is a problem, Haiti’s exceptional and unsung range deserves the hassle,” the authors of “Disappearing Jewels” famous within the report.
For locals within the 10 communes the park spans throughout South and Grand’Anse departments, Macaya serves as a important potable water supply. It feeds eight rivers: Les Anglais, Port-à-Piment, Acul, Torbeck, Ravine du Sud, Guinaudée, Voldrogue and Roseaux.
Pic Macaya Nationwide Park is dwelling to greater than 6,500 species of crops, together with:
- 141 types of orchids, 38 of them endemic
- 102 species of ferns with three endemic
- Almost 100 species of moss
- 367 types of flowering crops
Animals habiting the park embody:
- 220 species of birds
- 57 species of mollusks
- 11 species of butterflies, together with the endemic calisto loxias
- Six species of frogs, together with two varieties previously believed extinct
Following the 2010 earthquake that devastated Port-au-Prince and impacted ecology in different components of the south, consultants found amphibians at Macaya Park that had not been seen since 1991. Consultants with Amphibian Specialist Group counted the “mozart frog,” a creature that emits a particular name, within the discovery. Tiburon’s brook frog was additionally discovered there.
Picture Credit score: Haiti Nationwide Belief/ Robin Moore
Endangered crops discovered solely on the island embody kman’s Magnolia. The park additionally hosts two land mammal species endemic to Hispaniola — the hutia and solenodon, or Plagiodontia Aedium and Solenodon Paradoxus, respectively.
Defending and preserving Haiti’s parks
Whereas the Haitian authorities declared the realm a nationwide park, critics mentioned that alone failed to offer better safety to crops and animals. Fast deforestation was occurring as many locals turned to the park’s sources for subsistence, reminiscent of chopping down bushes for charcoal, and as pure disasters struck the realm.
Alexis’s Macaya Basis for Native Growth, additionally centered on defending and restoring the realm’s setting. It promotes actions reminiscent of planting, which residents who dwell close to Pic Macaya do as neighborhood service. The muse additionally crops hundreds of seedlings annually.
As of 2024, preservationists had planted bushes on 1,488 acres of the park, Alexis mentioned. The trouble considerably elevated forest cowl regardless of environmental challenges over the previous eight years.
The nationwide park is the one space in Haiti the place logging is prohibited and that residents respect, Alexis added.
Different parks across the nation have additionally been receiving care. Haiti National Trust, a conservation group based by airline mogul Philippe Bayard, goals to protect Haiti’s biodiversity hotspots. To this point, it has contributed to the creation of three extra nationwide parks: Grand Bois, Deux Mamelles et Grand Colline.
“It’s extraordinary to see that individuals who as soon as minimize down bushes for charcoal or farmed within the park at the moment are its biggest advocates.”
Anne-Isabelle Bonifassi, government director of Haiti Nationwide Belief
Locals play a serious function in these efforts, which in flip has had a serious influence on space residents.
“Roughly 40 % of our native area workforce is made up of ladies, which helps help many households,” Anne-Isabelle Bonifassi, government director of HNT, instructed The Haitian Instances over e-mail.
“It’s extraordinary to see that individuals who as soon as minimize down bushes for charcoal or farmed within the park at the moment are its biggest advocates,” Bonifassi added. “It is a great achievement. All this, regardless of the very troublesome socioeconomic state of affairs in Haiti, demonstrates our unwavering dedication to our mission.”