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RE: Part 7 – La Gonâve, Haiti - A Vision of Regeneration for a Degraded Land and Impoverished People – Casting a Vision
Joe, do you know how many landowners there are in the areas you need to do this work?
That's a really good and interesting question. I do not. Along the peak and ridges, landowners have larger parcels. Some might own 50 hectares or more. As you get closer to the cities, as is common anywhere, the holdings tend to be smaller. But there are a few who own large swaths of land down near the beaches, away from the towns. It's largely unutilized.
To get this started, I think just getting a handful at the peak would be sufficient. Ideally, we'd get in the neighborhood of 500 hectares or so, of the highest land to work with. But we'll invite landowners from the neighboring peak to the discussion too, to see if they're interested in participating. It would be ideal if they did, since it's a little higher and would probably have even more effect on the island, overall. But it's harder to get to and I guess they've had some bad experiences so aren't as amiable to white people coming in with their ideas. It's a huge unknown for me at this time, but hopefully they'll send some folks to discuss the possibilities. When you see my outline in a couple of days, hopefully you'll see why I think it is best for the landowners and why I think they'll at least appreciate the model. Jean Rony already discussed it with folks on Happy Dog and was met with encouragement that it was the best proposal they'd heard. Others have tried to buy up the land from them, even going so far as to try to get the government to force them. This plan promotes the landowners.