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The problem

A nation cooking on its last forests.

Haiti's reliance on wood charcoal for everyday cooking has become an environmental emergency — and an economic one. The numbers, drawn from a 2018 World Bank national assessment, are stark.

Deforestation

90% of Haiti's original forests are gone.

Decades of charcoal production have stripped the land. Today roughly 30% tree cover remains — and continued wood-charcoal demand keeps the pressure on.

  • Over 80% of households depend on charcoal for daily cooking.
  • An estimated 30 million trees are lost every year.
  • Wood charcoal produces smoke that harms indoor air quality and health.
Deforested hillside in HaitiPhoto — deforested hillside / charcoal kiln in Haiti
The scale

Charcoal isn't a side issue — it's a pillar of the economy.

Charcoal sales represent roughly 5% of Haiti's entire GDP — which is what makes the trade so hard to displace, and so valuable to get right.

946,500t
of charcoal consumed nationally each year.
World Bank, 2018
438,000t
consumed in Port-au-Prince alone, annually.
World Bank, 2018
#2
largest agricultural value chain in Haiti, behind only mangoes.
World Bank, 2018
250,000+
people work across the national charcoal value chain.
World Bank, 2018
$182M
in charcoal sales in Port-au-Prince per year.
World Bank, 2018
~$400M
in charcoal sales nationwide per year.
World Bank, 2018

Charcoal sustains a quarter-million livelihoods — yet the way it's made is consuming the very forests Haiti depends on. The opportunity isn't to ban it. It's to make it sustainable.

EkoAyiti — informed by the World Bank's Charcoal in Haiti: A National Assessment (Nov 2018)

There's a way forward

The demand isn't the problem. The fuel is.

Replace wood charcoal with charcoal made from agricultural waste, and the same market that's destroying Haiti's forests can start protecting them.

See our solution →