BESC 201

1. HAITIBESC 201-700
Vodcast Project
Valeria Arce, Ronald Gaydos, Quinton Talley, and Phillipe Orion

2. GEOGRAPHY

3.  Location:
 Caribbean, western one-third of the island of Hispaniola,
between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean,
west of the Dominican Republic.
 Area (sq km):
 Total: 27,750
 Land: 27,560
 Water: 190
 Area - comparative:
 Maryland

4.  Land boundaries:
 Total: 376 km
 Border countries (1): Dominican Republic 376 km
 Coastline:
 1,771 km
 Maritime claims:
 Territorial sea: 12 nm
 Exclusive economic zone: 200 nm

5.  Climate:
 Tropical; semiarid (mountains
at east cut off winds)

6.  Terrain:
 Mostly rough and mountainous
 Elevation:
 Mean elevation: 470 m
 Elevation extremes: lowest point: Caribbean Sea 0 m
 Highest point: Chaine de la Selle 2,680 m

7.  Land use:
 Agricultural land: 66.4%
 Arable land 38.5%; permanent crops 10.2%; permanent pasture 17.7%
 Forest: 3.6%
 Other: 30%

8. ENVIRONMENTAL
ISSUES

9. Earthquake of 2010
 January 12th, 2010.

10.  Pollution of the country’s water.
 Waterways.

11.  Before the 1950s, Haiti’s forest cover was in the 60% range, and has
dropped to less than 2% today.

12.  Agricultural productivity.
 Marine resources have been
degraded by sediment
deposition and overfishing.

13.  66% of Haitians depend
on agriculture and
small-scale farming.
 Dependency on
charcoal and firewood .

14. Some Solutions
 Feed the Future Haiti
 USAID
 Sean Smukler

15. Economy
 Although Haiti has seen economic hardship for several years, the government
managed to reduce the fiscal deficit in 2015 by keeping public spending at bay.
 Over the years Haiti has had trouble with economic growth due to severe
weather issues.

16. Economy cont.
 This graph shows the change in GDP over the years. Due to changes in the
government, it is slowly increasing and getting better.

17. Inflation
 The inflation rate in Haiti was recorded at 12.50 percent in September of 2016.
Inflation Rate in Haiti averaged 12.02 percent from 2003 until 2016, reaching an
all time high of 42.46 percent in September of 2003 and a record low of -4.70
percent in September of 2009.

18. Poverty
 The overall incidence of poverty in the country is 77%. But in rural areas, which
are home to 52 per cent of Haiti's population, 88% of people are poor and 67%
are extremely poor. Rural people have a per capita income that is about one
third of the income of people living in urban areas.

19. Poverty Cont.
 Rapid population growth and periods of economic decline linked
mainly to political and social turmoil are only some of the factors that
have led to dramatic poverty for most of Haiti’s people. The
government has been working hard over the years to bring better
resources to decrease the poverty level.