A widely cited report from 1979suggested that existing wood supplies in Haiti would beenough to meet increasing charcoal demand until around theyear 2000, but that ongoing charcoal production could resultin an environmental ‘apocalypse’ (Voltaire 1979, 21, 23) Theprediction that wood supplies in Haiti would be exhausted by2000 was also supported by a report on trends emerging fromearly remote sensing analyses of aerial photographs spanningfrom 1956 to 1978, for threedifferent locations in Haiti(Cohen 1984, v–iv). And yet, some 40 years later, Haitianscontinue to produce large quantities of charcoal despitethese dire predictions to the contrary. The estimations andsubsequent extrapolations presented here are conservative,using midrange estimates on a number of variables, includingcharcoal bag carrying capacities for different-sizedvehicles in the classificatory typology, an average weightassumption for charcoal bags, and the utilization of annualextrapolation methods (for Port-au-Prince and all of Haiti)based on extending data sampled during representative lowand peak periods of charcoal production to corresponding lowand peak seasons across the entire year. This researchprovides targeted answers to a narrow set of researchquestions, helping to fill an important information gap inHaiti. Most notably, the total volume of charcoal movinginto Port-au-Prince has implications on the total requiredvolume of primary production of biomass for charcoal and thetotal value of the charcoal value chains, demonstrating themagnitude of importance of charcoal production for Haiti.These two up-to-date figures may inform policy decisions fordevelopment and government programming related to landscapemanagement, reforestation, tree planting, agroforestry, andagricultural projects in Haiti.
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