The area known as Region des Palmes (English: The region of the palm trees) is located to the southwest of the Port-au-Prince Metropolitan Area. It brings together a series of four communes that that extend from the coast into the "mornes" (mountains). From east to west, they are: Gressier, Léogâne, Grand-Goâve and Petit-Goâve. Their combined population is approximately 450,000 inhabitants, located at the fringe of the capital city of Haiti, Port-au-Prince.
The spatial organization of the Region des Palmes is characteristic of the urban and rural geography of Haiti, and numerous challenges that can be found in other regions of the island are concentrated in the area: internal migrations, informal urban development, agricultural pressures, environmental degradation... Lastly, located at the epicenter of the earthquake that shook the country on January 12, 2010, the Region des Palmes suffered considerable damage, which led the communes to gather into a Community of Municipalities, a unique and unprecedented experiment in Haiti that gained financial and institutional support from both cooperation and the state department. The future of the region is nevertheles strongly tied to that of Port-au-Prince, whose development profoundly impacts the region’s spatial organization and economy (mostly rural and touristic). In this context, the interest and need in constructing a shared vision for the future of this territory presents a double agenda – both local and national. Since 2010, the Haitian government, working through the CIAT (Ministerial Committee for Territorial Development), has been preparing a strategic national vision for long-term land development and management in order to bring foresight and action that goes beyond simply emergency or transitional periods. As for the Region des Palmes, though it had created the Community of Municipalities of the Region des Palmes (CMRP) in order to face emergency, it is now implementing land and water resources management policies, and aims eventually at developing a strategic vision for its territory. This ‘territorial’ approach needs to strike an ‘internal’ balance between rural and urban areas and an ‘external’ balance between the region itself and Port-au-Prince, all within a context of profound demographic, social, and economic change. As a national pilot for this intercommunal approach, a successful outcome in Region des Palmes could have a demonstrative value that extends well beyond its borders.
Neighboring regions[]
Agape Island ~~Canal de La Gonâve~~ |
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|---|---|---|
| West Miragoâne Basin |
Region Des Palmes | East Port-au-Prince |
| South La Selle Foothills |