Date of Award

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Dean, Erin

Keywords

Haiti, Land Management, Western Discourse, Representation

Area of Concentration

Environmental Studies

Abstract

There is a common thread in Western depictions of Haiti that emphasizes a constant state of revolution and crisis, an inherent instability or inability to reconcile the goals and promises of emancipation with the realities of Haiti’s position in the world economy. Rhetoric of failure and crisis permeates Western political discourse and journalism and even into the ranks of Haitian society. Media coverage after the earthquake in January 2010 reinforced these tropes and prompted renewed attention to Haiti’s environmental problems, perpetuating a cycle of de-contextualized narratives that blame the rural peasant for the state of Haiti’s environment. Natural events such as earthquakes and hurricanes certainly exacerbate issues, but the real catastrophe in Haiti is man-made, a result of centuries of exploitation and marginalization. Representations of Haiti as a degraded land and endless disaster have a rich history of use that extends back to the revolutionary period. I begin by contextualizing Western discourse on Haiti’s environment to reveal the continuities between modern and colonial ways of thinking about Haiti. Repeatedly, these recycled tropes are used to rationalize foreign intervention by implicitly blaming Haitians for the state of the environment. Offering a counter narrative through a case study of a contemporary reforestation program in rural Haiti, I demonstrate how Haitians actively participate in land management, albeit in subtle ways that often go unnoticed by aid workers. Rethinking the drivers of environmental change is a way of revealing Haitian agency, and a path to more meaningful participation in development programs.

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