An island, two worlds

The story of the catastrophic environment does not seem new in the 21st century. But the case of the two countries of Haiti and the Dominican Republic in Latin America is a vivid testament and also the hottest lesson for nations. Do not know how to treasure nature's treasures.

The deserted forest trees in Haiti. (Photo: nigelberker.tv)

There is no need to wait until the earthquake of 7 degrees Richter in early 2010 killed 230,000 people and 1 million homeless, Haiti has become a hot spot in the world. The country has a proud history of being the first independent country in Latin America after the French anti-colonial revolution has long appeared prominently on television with bloody coup, flooding and a poor economy.

In contrast, the Dominican Republic, the neighboring country, shares the other half of the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, often appearing on CNN through tourism advertisements with peaceful beaches and green forests. silky.

Although not yet wealthy, Dominican people have had a per capita income of more than $ 5,000 a year, 7 times more than Haiti, and a GDP growth rate of 10% a year before declining because of the global financial crisis. What makes the two countries lying on an island of 76,500 square kilometers (nearly one-fourth of Vietnam's area) have two different fate?

Viewed from satellite images, the border between the two countries divided Hispaniola Island into two colors: the dark blue of the eastern forest (on the Dominica side) and the light brown of the western slopes (Haiti's side). ). The island was covered in green when Columbus arrived more than 500 years ago. Today, forests cover 28% of the Dominican Republic, while this figure in neighboring Haiti is only 1%.

In fact, the part of Dominica receives more rain and the main rivers flow into the fertile valleys to the east of the island. However, agriculture started to grow in advance and flourish in the west when the French colonial government turned Haiti into colonies to bring more profit for them while the Spanish seemed to forget Dominica.

In order to have manpower working on the plantations, the French received a lot of black slaves from Africa to replace the aboriginal people who died slowly from the disease. The large population on a cramped land is the reason why the forests in Haiti gradually disappear and the land becomes increasingly degraded, while the slave merchant ships leave the country with tons of good timber. At the end of the 18th century, Haiti's population was 7 times that of Dominica and this small colony contributed to a quarter of the French national income.

There is no doubt that the French colonial exploitation policy has left Haiti with a large population and an exhausted land. But it is not the population or the environment that determines the fate of this country but the way to deal with these challenges.

Black slaves - now heroes of the independent country of Haiti - have had extreme policies: massacre of fellow white people causing social division, dividing plantations into family gardens. small and devastating infrastructure to end the colonial desires of the empires but at the same time end trading activities and make the production become self-sufficient and extremely inefficient.

Deforestation, stemming from corruption and irresponsibility, eventually drives the country to a disaster of crop failure and flooding.

The Dominican Republic also has no peaceful history. The country experienced many colonial and authoritarian regimes, including 22 years occupied by Haiti. What is different from Haiti is that governments on the eastern side of Hispaniola are interested in protecting the environment. The first local code of restrictions on logging and water protection was adopted in 1901.

In the late 1920s, the people and authorities of Santiago contributed money to buy land on the banks of the Yaque River and turn it into a nature reserve. Trujillo dictator after taking power has set up the first national park in 1934.

National parks continued to be established and expanded under the presidency of Joaquín Balaguer since 1966. He transferred the ranger force from the Ministry of Agriculture to the army to stop deforestation, and declared forest exploitation. Illegal is threatening national security. Next, he imported gas from Venezuela and subsidized this fuel to completely replace the cutting of forests for firewood, which was the main cause of the disappearance of the last forests in poor Haiti. .

Although Balaguer himself did not have a clean political biography and his sometimes extreme extremes of environmental policy caused divisions in society, his attempt to greenen the country helped Dominica become a point. America's leading tourism and agricultural exporters.

Finally, as Professor of Natural History Jared Diamond points out: the environmental differences between the two countries are just a river that will be meaningless in a globalized world. The flow of natural and economic refugees from Haiti poured into Dominica society and the forests on the east side of the border began to be cut down by miserable Haitians.

History may have made two different countries on a small island but the current and future global environmental challenges will not distinguish humanity by color, perspective or income.