FdS Ecosystem: Sustainable Agroforestry via Permaculture & EcoStove Implementation in Haiti and D.R.

1. Haiti burns 400,000+ tons of charcoal annually, destroying 4,000,000 tons of trees. Haitian forest-lands have faced long-term degradation due to traditional carbon-intensive biomass cooking fuel (wood and charcoal) leading to overconsumption of natural forest resources. Previous studies confirm charcoal's destructive effect on Haiti's forests; however, charcoal-cooking's health risks require further evaluation. 

2. Health and developmental experts agree that Household Air Pollution (HAP) from wood and charcoal cooking is a major health factor in countries such as Haiti. WHO (2014): “Global burden of disease estimates have found that exposure to HAP from cooking results in around 4 million premature deaths, with the most recent estimates from WHO reporting 4.3 million deaths for 2012. HAP is responsible for nearly 5% of the global disease burden (expressed as disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs)), making it globally the single most important environmental risk factor.” These findings reflect life-or-death conditions and thus deserve greater attention. 

3. Private and public land in the border regions of the DR and Haiti suffer from long-term systemic deforestation, due in great part to clear-cut harvesting of trees to make charcoal for cooking fuel. Ten tons of wood are destroyed for each ton of charcoal produced.

FdS is developing and implementing a cross-beneficial ecosystem of integrated data-supported social-eco solutions, utilizing Behavioral Economics concepts to address the most pressing and underserved environmental issues: Focused on Haiti and the DR, with a global escalation plan, the FdS EcoSystem of Integrated Solutions includes:

Supporting and Protecting Existing Natural Forest - Jaragua National Park

Cactus / Desert Reconditioning

Reforestation / Dry Forest Redevelopment / Reconditioning

Carbon Offset and Sequestration

Plastic Recycling Off-Grid Systems

Efficient Thermal Solder Removal

Street-Paving-Block Production

Hospital Waste Incineration

Ultra-Efficient Top-Lit UpDraft Gasification CookStoves

Recycled Biomass Briquette Fuel

High-Carbon Content Soil Treatment BioChar Ash

Financially Sustainable Agroforestry

Aquaculture / Permaculture Nurseries

Expanding and Escalating the FdS Ecosystem of Operations in the DR and Haiti

FdS pioneered biomass-fuel production, ecological cooking innovations, turnkey off-grid recycling, and long-term reforestation-based carbon sequestration. FdS is the US Embassy and UN recycling contractor in Haiti. 

FdS briquette and stove technology has been constantly adapted to fit the needs and preferences of local people in Haiti. For instance, in close collaboration with local cooks, the stove height has been adjusted to accommodate traditional cooking techniques, and heating technology has been adapted to produce food with consistency comparable to that achieved through traditional charcoal cooking methods. In conjunction, FdS briquettes are naturally an easy-to-use fuel, which light quickly and burn efficiently and cleanly. 

Meanwhile, The same ultra-efficient industrial combustion system, used in FdS EcoStoves, allow for small-scale off-grid plastic recycling. Currently, all plastic products in Haiti are imported, and all plastic materials are either dumped and burned or gathered for export. The FdS plastic recycling system, is the first globally that utilizes clean ultra-efficient biomass briquettes as the heating source to cleanly melt plastic into other usable items. FdS has successfully achieved basic plastic molding, and products in development include: shelving, closets, and children’s school desks.

FdS briquette and stove technology has been constantly adapted to fit the needs and preferences of local people in Haiti. For instance, in close collaboration with local cooks, the stove height has been adjusted to accommodate traditional cooking techniques, and heating technology has been adapted to produce food with consistency comparable to that achieved through traditional charcoal cooking methods. In conjunction, FdS briquettes are naturally an easy-to-use fuel, which light quickly and burn efficiently and cleanly. 

Meanwhile, The same ultra-efficient industrial combustion system, used in FdS EcoStoves, allow for small-scale off-grid plastic recycling. Currently, all plastic products in Haiti are imported, and all plastic materials are either dumped and burned or gathered for export. The FdS plastic recycling system, is the first globally that utilizes clean ultra-efficient biomass briquettes as the heating source to cleanly melt plastic into other usable items. FdS has successfully achieved basic plastic molding, and products in development include: shelving, closets, and children’s school desks.

Although the Dominican Republic is one of the most traveled tourism destinations in the Caribbean, the benefits of tourism are concentrated in coastal and urban areas, the majority of the benefits have failed to improve the lives of Dominicans living in remote and rural areas. Additionally the millions of Haitian people living in the Dominican Republic are chronically underserved, unemployed, and unsupported for community-based development.

FdS works to facilitate ecologically and socially beneficial advances in Haiti and the DR at the request and consensus of local FdS team-leaders through a co-creation, collaboration, innovation, research, design, cultural-integration, implementation, acceptance, and long-term sustainability model.

In partnership with Grupo Jaragua (GJ) and with the support of the IADB BlueTech Challenge, FdS has developed and is implementing the revolutionary concept of the symbiotic systemic ecosystem operational design -- where all of the sub-component processes mutually benefit each other, working toward the common goal.  

The FdS system is implemented in tropical dry-forests and semi-deserts; these climates are chosen (counterintuitively) because each tree within the system will sequester less carbon per year than, for example, a tree in a mangrove forest. Dry-forest climates are chosen because they are plentiful globally and tend to be sparsely forested. Thus, a successful sustainable carbon-sequestration dry-forest model has the potential to make magnitudes  of measurable change for lower aggregate cost (on long-term-leased/ purchased land) than land in climates in greater human demand.

Dry-forests annually net remove/sequester 44 tonnes/ hectare. Current FdS/GJ sites measure ~70,000 ha: removing/sequestering >3M tonnes CO2 annually. The model is income-generating, job-creating, nature-based, and utilizing some of the most undervalued land available.

Additional key components include the ability to protect, conserve, and designate the site with government-supported land-preservation status. Previous models of land preservation include national parks, which can be highly effective to protect existing forests. However, national parks do not tend to create large-scale job-growth, nor are they seen as potential financial-generating drivers that can produce enough income to be 100% sustainable, and profitable. 

FdS is currently in communication with the Haitian government’s Center for Facilitation of Investments (CFI) with the goal of securing a long-term (renewable 100 year) lease for over 77,000 ha of degraded semi-desert land in the Southeastern Department near the community of Anse-a-Pitre and the Dominican border. The proposal is to create the region’s first Ecological Enterprise Zone, where FdS and partner GJ will implement the GJ agroforestry model of tri-level indigenous trees/ plants reconditioning semi-desert land back into productive carbon removing/sequestering tropical forests.

FdS and GJ are currently protecting, conserving, and supporting the JNP, including over 70,000 ha of Caribbean Dry-Forest, which annually removes/sequesters over 3,000,000 tonnes of CO2. Additionally, the current FdS/GJ agroforestry program includes: growing ground-level food plants such as cassava, beans, corn, chickpeas, and Caribbean oregano for multiple food harvests per year with nitrogen-fixing soil benefit; growing medium-height fruit, tea, and Amyris-oil trees for income generation and soil enhancement; and, growing tall Mahogany and Caribbean Oak trees for long-term carbon removal and sequestration. 

At the core of FdS is the 18+ year collaboration of Haitian/ Dominican innovator and entrepreneur, Frantz Fanfan, social scientist, author, and entrepreneur, Kevin Adair, and local community leader, serial entrepreneur, Fida Hippolyte. FdS provides over 40 jobs and works closely with global partners.

To confront the health and eco issues of charcoal cooking, the primary project of FdS is development,  production and distribution of ultra-efficient stoves, which cook with non-carbonized fuel briquettes, produced by FdS in the DR/Haiti. 

Inherent in the FdS mission is for our entire supply chain to share social, eco, and financial sustainability in the communities where we work. FdS biomass fuel briquettes are made from recycled paper, cardboard, and clean bio-waste from the indigenous Amyris tree, harvested for its oil. The Haitian company that extracts the oil and provides FdS with the bio-remnants, is ready to buy Amyris tree-wood from FdS when we are able to raise the tree through sustainable agroforestry. FdS will demonstrate the annual rotational harvest and replant model for Amyris, which is in contrast to the current non-sustainable status quo of harvest from old-growth forests. This scalable opportunity will support FdS supply chain sustainability, raise diverse indigenous poly-cropped forests, and create plentiful new jobs.

Please note: The Team-Lead for this submission is Kevin Adair in collaboration with FdS Co-Founder, Frantz Fanfan. However, due to an issue with the facebook login of this website, Kevin currently can't login to connect and update his profile at: https://solve-mit-edu.ezproxyberklee.flo.org/users/ke...

Since 2012, FdS Haiti has recycled over 1000 tons of post-consumer biomass, fueled over 1,500,000 school-meals, and benefited over 100,000 people. FdS provides over 40 full time-equivalent jobs, and continues to scale-up, innovate, and expand.

The FdS model is: Listen. Lead. Listen Again. First listen to local communities’ needs; then provide leadership, resources, and funding otherwise unavailable; and then listen again to co-implement the most culturally appropriate steps forward. FdS is a hybrid Social-Eco SME with 501(C)(3)IRS status in the US through fiscal sponsor: Omprakash.

Included in our permaculture / aquaculture nursery program, FdS is developing microalgae cultivation for fish-food production. The fish we raise also help fertilize our indigenous plant / tree seedlings.

Multi-Beneficial Ecosystem of Carbon Sequestration / carbon offset solutions. From the fish-food, to the natural fertilization, to the nursery development of indigenous plants / trees, to forest monitoring, management, and tree protection for >100 years.

As recipients of the current IADB Lab $600,000 BlueTech Challenge, we are required to seek additional funding through additional developmental partners. Toward this end we have secured agreements from the German NGO, Development-Future-Haiti to provide the funds to purchase food from local farmers / markets in the Haiti/ DR border region to cook school meals for 250 students. We see the MIT Solve program as a perfect fid for additional partnership and project escalation.

Independent research by Burn Design Lab, Clean Cooking Alliance, ENEA, and Low-Tech Magazine all rate the FdS ecological cooking system as the most efficient and least polluting cooking method in use in Haiti. The complexity of our solutions makes it difficult to communicate and convey how everything functions together. However, the fact that the issues that have led to the issues that this problem addresses are complex and require a long-term comprehensive approach to reach the levels of success and sustainability required to address previously intractable problems.