FUTURE FUELS HAITI DEVELOPMENT FUND

The Future Fuels Haiti Development Fund supports the development of environmentally responsible fuel sources that create jobs and incomes for the poorest Haitians and reverse the over 98% deforestation due to charcoal production. The soil erosion control loss due to deforestation is of particular concern for Haiti because of the yearly flooding and rains that continually devastate parts of the country.

Fuel briquettes made from agricultural waste and residues has enormous potential to replace charcoal as the primary household and commercial fuel source in Haiti. The Future Fuels Haiti Development Fund is bringing together local community groups and organizations, farmers, local and international financial institutions, international researchers and technical experts, the private sector, and committed entrepreneurs to jump-start the fuel briquette industry in Haiti. The Future Fuels Haiti Development Fund is focusing initial efforts on opportunities in the Cayes area of the south of Haiti in partnership with the farmers and distillers of vetiver for essential oil, a major Haitian Export. Initial income generating opportunities for the lowest income populations of the areas will focus on harvesting, collection, and sale of vetiver leaves to a local, briquette production facility.

The potential market value of briquettes utilizing agricultural by-products (including vetiver, sugar cane, corn, and sorghum), based on preliminary research of the MIT D-Lab in 2009, was $27,493,000. If only 10% of agricultural residues are utilized to make fuel-briquettes in Haiti, “farmers and local businesses could generate nearly $3,000,000 in total from sale of these briquettes into the local market” and “nearly 150,000 trees could be saved each year.”

This Fund is initially seeking $65,000 to jump-start the industry in the Cayes area through usage of vetiver agricultural residues in partnership with ground breaking commercial facility. The Fund’s goal over an 18-month period is to create a market value of $600,000 per year for vetiver fuel briquettes and to save 30,400 trees.

This will serve as a demonstration project to facilitate the further development of sustainable, private sector based fuel briquette enterprises across Haiti. The Future Fuels Development Fund will oversee and implement the following activities:

- Community Engagement Processes to Ensure Benefit to Farmers and Lowest Income Individuals

- Establish and implement an environmental and social tracking system to ensure the maximum deforestation prevention and employment creation and income generation for farmers.

- Identification of and financing for briquette technology purchases. The project will establish an appropriate type of loan fund to incentivize investment into the sector, to provide loans to those entities needing to upgrade their activities and purchase technology. This loan fund will help to ensure the sustainability of the project and the replication of the industry throughout Haiti

- Assist a local Haitian small business to establish the first commercial Haitian fuel briquette commercial production facility that provides sufficient quality control and economy of scale to compete with charcoal

- Marketing Campaigns and Strategic Partnership to Promote Usage of Briquettes Throughout the Community: Public Awareness Campaigns, Packaging Design, and Local and international celebrity promotion to local Haitian market

- Market research on linkage between social behavior change and the development of appropriate packaging to reach potential customers, effective distribution networks

- Business training on costing and pricing, record keeping and management, quality control and packaging for farmer agricultural waste collection enterprises.

- Marketing of product to existing fuel distribution networks, primarily the charcoal distribution network

- Identification of and support to partners to assist the development of the fuel briquette industry including developing relationships with potential financiers for working capital and equipment purchases

- Training farmers in the collection of vetiver leaves and development of small businesses to supply vetiver leaves to commercial fuel briquette producer

- Review of local Haitian private sector business plans and requests for investment support to set up fuel briquette production facilities or support structures

- Design and implementation of a monitoring system, through ground breaking payment for ecosystem services computer modeling, to track progress of the growth of the industry as well as establish key criteria and success factors for replication throughout Haiti

- Identification of technical expertise and learning around fuel briquette production from other parts of the world to support the development of the industry in Haiti

- Oversight of the management of the Fund, including management of contributions; dissemination of funds to local partners, review of grant request proposals as applicable, administration of the tax deduction paperwork to contributors and additional operational and financial administration as required.

- Identification of the needs to set up and maintain a Haitian fuel briquette industry through routine research and reporting

For further information, please contact Kate Davenport, Interim Director of Future Fuels Haiti, at kate@eco-ventures.org or 202-203-8110 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-203-8110      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-203-8110      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-203-8110      end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting              202-203-8110      end_of_the_skype_highlighting

EVI is a registered United States 501©3 non-profit organization. All contributions to the Haiti Fuel Briquette Development Fund are tax deducible. All contributions to the Fund will be used exclusively to support EVI and its sub-recipients’ fuel briquetting activities in Haiti and will be tracked as a separate fund in accordance with US Government regulations for non-profit organizations.