Goal: Identify, establish and manage marine and terrestrial protected areas in Haiti Grand Sud Region.
In 2013, the Government of Haiti declared a network of nine marine protected areas in the South Department of Haiti. In 2015, the country’s first protected areas management plan was developed for the Macaya National Natural Park. Containing the last primary forest in Haiti, the park sits at the heart of the peninsula and is home to many endemic species. It is also the main source of all waterways on the peninsula. In 2016, UNEP is supporting the Ministry of Environment to identify further marine sites in need of protection in the Grand’Anse Department with the goal of expanding the protected areas network to cover all key ecosystems on the southern peninsula.
UNEP supports capacity building for the Government in the development and implementation of protected area management plans, including through the establishment of a Marine Protected Areas Unit within the Departmental Directorate of the Ministry of Environment in the South, and a Fisheries Management Unit within the Departmental Directorate for Agriculture.
In March 2016, UNESCO declared the Massif de la Hotte, the mountain range that covers Haiti’s southern peninsula and comprises the Macaya National Natural Park, as well as the surrounding marine ecosystems, as part of UNESCO’s Man and Biosphere Reserve Network.
