Emily D'Souza- Topic of Choice 1: "Death by 1000 Cuts"

  Death by 1000 Cuts is one of the documentaries we watched in class, and it had to do with deforestation and the lack of trees in Haiti. Due to exploitation of Haiti by the Western world, by the 1970’s, the country had lost 90% of its forests, and because of soil degradation, the environment doesn’t allow for new trees to grow. This raises problems because trees serve as livelihood for the majority of citizens. They burn the trees to produce charcoal, and they then use that charcoal to cook, heat, sell, etc. Because Haitians don’t have this essential resource in their country, they are forced to go to the Dominican Republic and take their trees. The D.R. is plentiful in trees compared to Haiti, but they aren’t too keen on sharing their resources. The park rangers of the D.R. on the border of Haiti are tasked with keeping Haitians out, and protecting the trees. The documentary discussed an incident with a park ranger named Melaneo who was killed by Haitians when he discovered they were burning trees for charcoal. This was quite shocking to me, because how can an environmental concern turn into murder? I think this documentary was beneficial in bringing up the idea that environmental issues aren’t strictly environmental, and they can cause other issues as well. In this case, the environmental degradation of Haiti’s forests turned into a humanitarian crisis because it’s citizens don’t have the necessary resources for their lives, and it also contributed to human conflict between the two countries. The need for trees causes disruption between these two countries, and it illustrates that environmental problems don’t just affect the earth and the land, but also human interaction.