President Michel Martelly on Tuesday declared 2013 as Haiti's Year of Environment and called on citizens to join government efforts to preserve the country's ecosystem. Speaking at a ceremony in northern Haiti to commemorate the 209th anniversary of Haitian Independence, Martelly also urged every Haitian to plant a tree this year. Haiti is currently in an “ecological catastrophe,” according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), which warned that between 25 and 30 drainage basins in the country are “severely degraded.”
