Deforestation is a complex problem with many drivers and challenges that can diminish the sustainability of reforestation efforts. Between 2017 and 2021, Chemonics International worked to address key drivers of deforestation in Northern Haiti through the USAID Reforestation Project.

Understanding that sustainable reforestation and resilience are inextricably linked, the project team applied a resilience lens to all its interventions. Some of the lessons learned during implementation are presented in the following four briefs:

1. Gender and Resilience: How Inclusive Participation in Cattle Management Strengthens Women's Resilience in Northern Haiti

This brief explores opportunities and challenges for women in agriculture in Haiti, the effects of inclusive livestock management in helping women strengthen household resilience and insights to inform future resilience activities for the USAID Reforestation Project and future resilience programs in Haiti. Author: Jennifer Plantin.

2. Applying Blended Finance to Support the Conversion to Clean Cooking: Engaging the Private Sector to Increase Household Use of Alternatives to Fuelwood

This brief presents how engaging with the private sector to offer a blended finance scheme supported the manufacturing of liquified petroleum gas (LPG) stoves and helped convert households to this wood-fuel alternative for food preparation, slowing deforestation. Author: Eric Oscar Jacob.

3. Applying the Innovation Adoption Measurement Approach to Strengthen Resilience Programming

This brief describes how Chemonics’s teams in Mali and Haiti applied the Innovation Adoption Measurement Approach, developed by Chemonics expert Dr. Tom Fattori, to support adaptive management on resilience-focused projects. This approach takes the findings from an innovation adoption assessment and identifies specific and actionable recommendations for targeting and improving the adoption of practices that strengthen resilience. Authors: Marie-Claire Tuzeneu, Dr. Thomas Fattori and Amy Ostrander.

4. Resilience Programming in Support of Reforestation: Emerging Lessons from Haiti

This brief focuses on three key lessons learned — the importance of social capital for resilience, leveraging social capital to establish community buy-in and linking resilience activities to specific shocks. The USAID Reforestation Project team applied these lessons to implement a refined reforestation approach, which may be relevant to other projects incorporating components of resilience-building, sustainable landscape management and reforestation. Authors: Rebecca Chamberlin and Emily Keller-Coffey.

The USAID Reforestation Project is implemented by Chemonics International, with its partners the National Cooperative Business Association CLUSA International (NCBA CLUSA) and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). Learn more on the project’s webpage and Facebook page.