Belèvèt: Green Bel Air

by Joachim Guillaume

Belèvèt, or Green Bel Air, was one of the most popular concepts in the months before the January 12th earthquake. Bel Air residents campaigned collectively, protesting against the stigma inflicted on their neighborhood and called for its reclassification as a safe “green zone”. It is currently a “red zone” which means that civilians need to enter it under escort because of the looming threat of violence.

The campaign was launched in May of 2009 and really took off when Haiti’s former prime minister Michèle D. Pierre-Louis became the main advocate of the cause to transform Bel Air into a ‘green zone’.

Alix Fils-Aimé, president of Haiti’s National Disarmament Commission, is proud of this new prevailing spirit in Bel Air and calls for people to get involved and commit to investing in the development of the region. “The security situation in the country, especially in Bel Air, had improved significantly in the last three years prior to the quake as a result of the synergy between the actions of the Haitian National Police, the UN Mission for the Stabilization of Haiti (Minustah), the National Disarmament Commission and the residents of the areas once considered ‘without rights’. Now is the time to invest,” reminds Fils-Aimé.

Bel Air residents have already clearly expressed their desire for the reassessment of the status of their neighborhood under the security plan: more than 40,000 residents signed a neighborhood petition. In addition to the petition campaign, a local co-operative (Coobelav) was set up to plant 5,000 seedlings of fruit trees, ornamental plants and other plants, and a painting competition was held with dozens of local artists from this cultural hot spot in Port-au-Prince. “Our desire is to have a green Bel Air again, but even more important is the involvement and commitment of each person,” said an enthusiastic young Bel Air resident.

The residents proudly state that the historic neighborhood in Haiti’s capital is becoming more stable and they want to ensure it stays that way. It was only a few years ago, in 2005 and 2006, that the region’s security was so precarious that even the National Police feared the area’s violence. A large percentage of the population was forced to move – a study on victimization during this period confirmed that 43% of the Bel Air population had to move to escape the violence.

The campaign also shows that the region is open to investments prior to the violent quake that shook the city. Several stores, that at some point had closed their doors because of the violence, had prior to the quake, resumed offering services to this population that has been deprived of practically everything.

Now Viva Rio is interested in continuing the campaign with a special emphasis on its ecological side. The earthquake affected security in Bel Air; it destroyed the federal prison in Port-au-Prince, prompting the escape of convicted offenders to various neighborhoods, Bel Air included, raising levels of insecurity.

In the spirit of the Green Bel Air campaign, Viva Rio is launching a new project called “Green roofs”, introducing technology used in several European countries to implement community agriculture on the roofs of houses. This will further contribute to a greener neighborhood. Bel Air is most certainly not what it used to be. However, we still need to increase our efforts and we especially need to make people more aware of just how important their role is in reconstructing the neighborhood.

Translated by Alexandra de Vries, edited by Lis H Moriconi