What is currently happening at the Cayes Botanical Garden

Understanding this garden, its history, and what is happening right now.

For more than eight months, the Cayes Botanical Garden has been closed by force. No child, no student, no researcher, no visitor can enter. In the meantime, collections of rare endemic and native plants are disappearing day after day. For 23 years, this garden has been the pride of Les Cayes, of Haiti and of the diaspora — a unique place of education, research and discovery of our flora.

The story of the Cayes Botanical Garden begins with the vision of one man: William Cinéa, a Haitian forestry engineer and botanist. After pursuing forestry studies in the Dominican Republic between 1995 and 2000, he returned home with a strong idea — to contribute to reforestation and the protection of nature. From this was born the "Haïti Verte" initiative, the forerunner of what would become the botanical garden.

In 2002, during a training in Israel dedicated to agricultural and environmental initiatives, William Cinéa visited the famous Bahá'í Gardens, of exceptional design and beauty, which proved to him that a project of comparable scale could exist in Haiti. Upon his return, he took action: he leased a plot of six and a half carreaux in Bergeaud, along National Road N°2 in Les Cayes, belonging to the Gérard family.

A formal farm-lease contract was officially signed with the heirs' mother, Mrs. Laurette Milard Gérard, in full compliance with legal formalities. It was Maître Edlan Jabouin, the family's lawyer, who received the payments on behalf of the owners. From the very beginning, the relationship between the Cayes Botanical Garden and the Gérard family was marked by mutual respect and trust. In 2004, one of the heirs, Jacqueline Gérard, visited the site with her mother and was so moved by the project that she herself proposed replacing the name "Haïti Verte" with "Jardin Botanique des Cayes" (Cayes Botanical Garden) — a gesture testifying to the whole family's support for this vision.

For Mrs. Laurette Milard Gérard, the signatory of the lease, the garden represented a natural continuity with the family's values tied to land and reforestation in the South Department, particularly in Port-Salut. She regularly visited the garden over the years to encourage the team, share advice and express her support. For more than twenty years, the relationship between the two parties remained constructive, respectful and mutually beneficial.

In 2018, one heir, through the family's law firm, sent a promise-of-sale contract and announced the termination of the farm-lease. The Cayes Botanical Garden team then requested the State to intervene and purchase the property, estimated at more than US$ 800,000. Through the Ministry of the Environment, and more specifically ANAP (the National Agency of Protected Areas), a meeting was arranged with the lessor, his wife and the CBG team. A report was produced, and the sellers were invited to provide the necessary titles so that the file could be included in the 2019-2020 national budget. Unfortunately, these documents were never provided, which blocked the process.

In June 2024, Mrs. Laurette Milard Gérard passed away. Her son, a supporter of the sale, resides in the United States; his wife, present in Haiti, then began an unauthorized process to take back the land. Although this garden represents more than 23 years of work, patience and collection-building, a deadline of only eight days was imposed on the team to move all the plants and vacate the space. Eight days later, accompanied by the police and her lawyers, she barred garden staff from entering. Her first actions consisted of cutting the collections of native and endemic plants to turn them into charcoal, eliminating all the plants of the ecological reserve and setting fire to more than one hectare. Banana plantations were even installed inside the garden.

Facing this situation, seven of the nine heirs of the family, frustrated by this action, wrote to the Minister of Justice and Public Security to request urgent intervention. Through their law firm, they formally demanded that Mrs. Marie Donna Bastien-Gérard immediately cease all action against the garden. For these heirs, the garden embodies the greatness and vision of their parents: they refuse to see it disappear.

From the very beginning of the crisis, the garden team issued appeals through several media — Vision 2000, Radio Caraïbes, Magik 9, Le Nouvelliste, AyiboPost — in order to alert the authorities. The Minister of the Environment was also contacted. Yet to this day, nothing has been done. Meanwhile, this heritage continues to disappear, and the preserved plants are being lost a little more every day. This garden goes beyond the interest of its founder, William Cinéa, and of the Gérard family: it is a scientific institution of national interest.

The garden in action

The ongoing destruction