Les Arcadins Islands and The Chaine des Matheux Coastal Watershed

The Sea

Haiti has 1500 km of coastline and an estimated insular shelf of 5000 km2. In contrast to the declining resource value of its forests and agricultural lands, Haiti's coastal and marine environment appears to be in relatively good condition. Well developed coral reefs fringe long stretches of coastline. Offshore barrier and atoll-like reefs, and "walls" of coral, along the shelf edge, although largely unexplored, are highly productive and sometimes spectacular.

The western waters of Haiti are influenced by two major currents: the Antilles Current to the north and the Caribbean Current to the south. The Windward Passage, one of the deepest and widest connections between the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean, also influences the physico-chemical properties of the region. Wind-induced currents and tidal flows in Port-au-Prince bay affect the distribution of epibenthic populations within its natural systems.

The three small islands of Les Arcadins are the only significant land outcrops off the west coast of Haiti, up to the platform of Ile de la Gonave. They are situated on a bank about 5 km wide that ranges in depth from 13 to 19m . The platform surrounding this bank is generally deeper than 21m.

The closest of the Arcadins islands to shore, Ti Teal, or North Island, lies about 3.6 nautical miles in a southerly direction from Kaliko. It is 110 m long and 70 m wide. The largest of the three islands, Lighthouse Island, is 425 m long and 125 m wide and lies .5 nautical miles southwest of Ti Teal. Ile de Sud or South Island is 250 m long and 200 m wide and lies .2 nautical miles south of Lighthouse Island. The water depths between the coast at Kaliko and Les Arcadins range between 10.7 and 31.0 m.

Les Arcadins are surrounded by extensive coral reefs, which geologists believe possibly arose when the Haitian platform became inundated after the last glaciation. The islands lie between the alluvium-limestone formations to the east, along the coast, and the limestone formation of the Ile de la Gonave, to the west.

At least five major rivers discharge close enough to impact Les Arcadins and the vitally important reefs in Port-au-Prince Bay by introducing terrestrial sediments near the area during the wet season when these rivers are flowing.

Of the four potential marine park and protected area sites identified by the 1986 Haiti Country Environmental Profile as needing further study, Les Arcadins held the highest immediate potential for park designation because of its proximity to Port-au-Prince, potential for tourism development, local interest in protecting the site, and its diverse underwater life. The reef systems in the Bay are critical to area fisheries and overall health of the marine environment.

Following a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) -funded feasibility study (Wilcox, 1986) that supported the importance of the site, a two-year collaborative effort was initiated by USAID to study the area in greater detail and prepare a Draft Action Plan for the establishment of a Les Arcadins Marine Park.

Besides the importance of the reef system to the environmental health of the bay and area fisheries, the marine area surrounding the three Les Arcadins islands has the potential to become an important diving area in the Caribbean region. It has a physically predictable environment, and excellent water transparency; better than that found in most other marine areas in the Caribbean. The high physical heterogeneity of the substrate allows the establishment and development of both light exposed biota (corals, gorgonians and algae) and cryptic-cave dwelling species. Some deep water (more than 30 m of depth) habitats are apparently replicated here in very shallow water (5 m) allowing one to view deep water species in shallow water environments. From a conservationist point-of-view, Les Arcadins' uniqueness and biological diversity make it a natural resource worthy of preservation and protection.

Marine resource protection falls within the purvue of the Direction de Peche des Ressources Naturelles, Service de Peche et pisciculture ( Fisheries Office of the Natural Resources Department).

The Land

Fishing villages lie on the coast, facing Les Arcadins to the west, with arid, deforested foothills and low-lying mountains to their back.

At the present time, most of the land is divided into smaller plots which are rented or sharecropped for agriculture and animal husbandry. Weather conditions permitting, the inhabitants grow different varieties of melon for sale and millet for their own consumption, but use these lands primarily for goat grazing.

This combination of arid lands with minimal agricultural value, a shoreline dotted with beach hotels and private beach houses, and a fragile marine ecology characterizes the area from Luly northwest to Montrouis and St. Marc. The area southeast of Luly, stretching to Cabaret is a fertile plain almost completely irrigated through the interventions of the Haitian State and various international donor organizations. This area produces substantial amounts of plantain, bananas, tomatoes and other table vegetables.

The People

Following the same pattern found all over Haiti, the villagers along the Chaine de Matheux coast pursue a livelihood strategy of minimizing risk by engaging in a variety of economic activities. Even a full-time, fully-equipped fisherman will also have various economic activities on the side, such as garden cultivation and occasional wage labor when the opportunity presents itself.

The population of Luly, the largest fishing village in the target area (and the largest community in the target area besides Montrouis), also includes a number of displaced families from other areas, numbering approximately 15% of the total population. These displaced people come primarily from the island of La Gonave and the area immediately surrounding St. Marc.

The island of La Gonave is almost completely deforested and frequently drought-stricken. During droughts many La Gonave families, dependent entirely on fishing for their livelihood, move temporarily to Luly to be close to a major fish marketing center and to avail themselves of the relatively larger range of economic opportunities. When the droughts are over, most of these families move back to La Gonave, but there are always several who stay and make Luly their home. Likewise, the area around St. Marc is severely deforested, and during dry periods these people must depend, to a large extent, on fishing. In the last few years St. Marc fishermen have been increasingly frequenting the Luly fishing territories and marketing their fish in Luly. Some of these fishermen have moved their families to Luly permanently. There are also a few individuals who have come from areas further afield (such as Logane, Miragone, Gonaives), seeking jobs in the tourist hotels and eventually making Luly their permanent home.

Luly, like the other villages, is a highly stratified community. Its internal ranking is gauged primarily by access to economic resources, with sociocultural characteristics tied directly to the level of economic standing:

• The top of the socio-economic ladder in Luly is that group of people engaged in the wholesale distribution of fish, or the spekilate. The speculators buy large quantities of better quality fish and high-priced lobster, conch, crab, and shrimp to sell to the beach hotels, local consumers, and Port-au-Prince retail and wholesale dealers. Some of them are directly linked to wholesale fish exporters in Port-au-Prince, while others are more independent, selling through a variety of channels.  
• Just below them on the socioeconomic ladder are those successful, full-time fishermen, who have a full range of fishing gear and derive the major portion of their income from fishing. More-or-less on a par with these fishermen are the various bos, or skilled craftsmen, manufacturing boats and related fishing gear, and the madanm sara, or market women.
• Next are the relatively less-successful full-time fishermen, the agents of the spekilate (those who actually buy the fish on the beach) and people in the permanent employ of the beach hotels. Further down are the machann, or local market women, who buy lower quality fish on the beach for resale in the nearby markets, the less-skilled bos, and domestic workers.
• At the bottom are the full assortment of part-time fishermen with minimal fishing gear, the displaced families from other areas, the women and men who clean and prepare fish for the wholesalers, and the many who find employment wherever and whenever they can.

Although there are relatively few large tracts (100+ ha) of land held by one owner, there are numerous smaller holdings belonging to Port-au-Prince businessmen which are sharecropped by the local inhabitants.

The Economy

The economic focus of most of the target area's coastal villages is the collection and distribution of fish and other marine products. In addition to fishing per se, many, if not all, economic pursuits in Luly are related to some aspect of the fishing industry. These include the purchase and marketing of fish, the cleaning and preparation of fish for wholesale buyers, and the artisanal production of fishing nets, traps, sails and boats.

Like other Caribbean islands, one of Haiti's major tourist attractions is its beaches, and this strip of coast is the most accessible, most comfortable in terms of amenities and among the most beautiful sites in the country. During peak tourist years, the local economy received an estimated $1.5 million dollars annually from hotel wages and fish/seafood sales. Total hotel and direct and indirect employment generated from these tourist businesses was estimated to be about 2,200 Haitians. Government revenues were approximately $1 million from room and departure taxes. Annual foreign capital into the country, less the hotel wages and fish and seafood purchases and government revenues, was an estimated $21 million to $31 million, in the peak tourist year. This inflow of cash was further distributed throughout the region for necessary goods and services and other investments. In total, the hotel industry injected at least $2 million into the local economy in wages alone.

Peripheral to these fishing activities are agricultural and livestock production, hotels, agricultural day labor, and petty entrepreneurial activities such as the sale of shells and crafts, and the providing of occasional boat trips for tourists.

The largest regional market in the target area is the one in Cabaret, at the Southern tip of the target area, which takes place twice a week. On alternate days there are more localized markets in many of the roadside communities, including Williamson, Arcahaie, Sainthard, and - at the Northern tip of the target area- Montrouis.

Tourism: The target area area has been a recognized tourist beach area in Haiti since the late sixties. Both the Ibo Beach and Kyona Beach resorts have been in operation for nearly three decades. The area includes eight hotels and resorts, encompassing the area bounded by Ibo Beach at the village of Simonette to Xaragua Hotel at the village of Deluge.

The selection of the Les Arcadins region by tourists bound for the Caribbean results from its fine beaches, its ease of access, the marine life and its proximity to Port-au-Prince. Of the almost 800 beach hotel rooms in all of Haiti, over 80 percent are in the Les Arcadins region.

The Arcadins islands and coral reefs are a recreational feature of the resort operations of many of the hotels in the region. In particular, dive packages were a growing element of Kaliko's business in the mid-80's. During the peak season, in the mid 1980's, about 25% of those staying at the Kaliko hotel had come exclusively for diving.

Unfortunately, in 1986 due to the uprisings and ouster of Duvalier, annual tourists to beach hotels numbered just over 5,000 according to Office of Tourism statistics, or one-fifth that of the previous year. Civil disturbances of the Summer of 1987 and the violent turmoil during the Fall elections all but eliminated foreign tourists to Haiti. The economy of the area is expected to see major and rapid improvement with restoration of democracy in Haiti, with serious implications for the environment.

The Fishing Industry: The tourist industry has always depended heavily on the fishing industry because fish and seafood are in demand by resort guests. In order to meet these demands, the resorts purchase fish and seafood from either the local villages or from the major fishing ports of Port-au-Prince and St. Marc. The place of purchase differs per hotel and depends on its proximity to a fishing village.

In general, the village of Luly supplies the lobster and lambi to the hotels in its vicinity. Fish is supplied to these hotels mostly from St. Marc. The Ibo Beach purchases fish and lobster from the village of Seminote while lambi is purchased from Port-au-Prince. Moulin Sur Mer, the most distant hotel from Port-au-Prince, interestingly enough purchases all its fish and seafood from Port-au-Prince.

Annual revenues to the fishing industry generated from purchases of fish and seafood during the peak tourist years is estimated to range from $500,000 to over $750,000.

The price paid per pound of fish ranged in 1988 from $1.30 to $2.20 with the majority of hotels paying in the $1.30 to $1.60 range. Lobster was priced from $2.20 to $3.50 per pound with the average around $2.50 per pound. Lambi was priced from $2.00 to $2.50 per pound.

The weekly quantities of fish and seafood demanded by each local hotel, except Club Mediterranean, during the peak tourist years is estimated to be between 300 and 400 pounds of fish, 250 to 350 pounds of lobster, and 200 to 275 pounds of lambi. These quantities would serve from 400 to 800 meals at each hotel. Today the hotels are purchasing from 150 to 200 pounds of fish, 100 to 125 pounds of lobster and about 50 to 100 pounds of lambi for an average of around 200 meals per week. (These figures are rough estimates and they are given only to provide a benchmark of the potential revenues which could be generated by the tourist economy to the local fishing industry.)

Human Pressures

Although the target area's socio-geographic situation provides an advantage to its fishermen in terms of access to market, it also causes increased pressure on the marine resource. First, it brings outside fishermen into area fishing waters, thereby increasing the numbers of people dependent on a single marine base. Secondly, it forces indigenous fishermen to double their efforts, both because of competition with outsiders and in order to sustain acceptable yields from an increasingly overexploited marine environment.

It is important to note that the lower range of the socioeconomic ladder in the fishing villages is characterized by people who must shift their economic activities according to the most advantageous opportunities that present themselves. The so-called "part-time" fishermen rely on fishing when other sectors of the economy are not viable. A drought, the loss of access to agricultural lands, the lack of day labor, the need to sell off livestock, and so on, are all situations where, typically, men will turn to fishing to take up the slack. Needless to say, these men have restricted access to fishing gear and limited experience and knowledge of the marine environment.

Thus they are at a double disadvantage, both in relation to full-time fishermen and to others who have stable economic pursuits.

Taking Luly, being the largest fishing community, as an example, the fishing activity is focused around a core of full-time fishermen who are seriously committed to maintaining their livelihood, for themselves and the next generation. They are generally already aware of the long-term negative effects of overfishing, but find themselves helpless to change the situation, due to primitive fishing methods, scarce capital, market domination by local and Port-au-Prince fish speculators, and increased pressure on the marine resource from local and opportunistic part-time fishermen.

Due to the primitive nature of fishing technology, this increased pressure is felt in the longer and more frequent fishing sorties necessary to maintain an adequate return. A normal fishing sortie starts at 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning and ends at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, at least three times a week. Furthermore, it is only the well-equipped full-time fisherman who can afford to only go out three times a week. Others must go out more often or alternate with other labor, such as agricultural activities. (A full discussion of fishing equipment, methods fishing territories, boat ownership and commercial distribution can be found in Section 3 in the Resource Document, Appendices I, II, III).

There is also recent evidence of increasing shell and coral collection by those who sell to commercial exporters in Port-au-Prince. The shallow, calm nature of Les Arcadins waters make it a natural target for such collecting operations.

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