cayes

Rumors have been infiltrating Les Cayes community government of Haiti is reneging on its pledge to erect an international airport on the city's outskirts.

Residents are upset because an airport would increase tourism while providing much-needed jobs.

Officials in the Martelly-Lamothe government are scrambling to verify if the rumors are true. Meanwhile a former aid to Martelly is claiming Prime Minister Lamothe and Minister of Tourism, Stephanie Villedrouin, have been lying to the community.

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Les Cayes is a city located on the south coast of the Haitian Tiburon Peninsula. It is a place that has weathered epidemics, piracy, mass killings, and natural and man-made disasters.

It is most famously known as a logistic spot for weapons and armies that helped Simon Bolivar conquer Spanish invaders in Venezuela, which led to South America's liberation.

Les Cayes is the main export center in the south for sugar, coffee, bananas, cotton, timber, and rawhide.

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The attractions of Les Cayes are little wonders in their own way. Gelée beach is famous for its long expanse of glorious white sand, and is also well loved for its wonderful restaurants which serve mainly southern Haitian dishes like grilled lobster and fish, tonm-tonm and grilled conch. There is also the added attraction of a festival each August, celebrating Compas music. It also boasts its own Botanical Garden at the northern entrance of the city in Bergeau. Sitting on 8 hectares, Le Jardin Botanique des Cayes is an attraction of its own, but sits close enough to other interesting places to be a convenient stop on an excursion.

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Les Cayes significant points in history include: being named by the French administration who colonized the area, Aux Cayes, due to its closeness to Île à Vache, President of Gran Colombia, Simón Bolívar traveled to Les Cayes on December 23, 1818 to gain support for his campaign in South America, hurricanes destroyed the town first in 1781 and then again seven years later, and it has had as its residents, André Rigaud, Auguste Davezac, John James Audubon and André Corvington.

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Among the list of exports that ship out regularly from Les Cayes, one of Haiti's biggest ports in the South, are hides, bananas, sugar, dyewood, coffee, timber and cotton. The increase in the city's importance to international trade led to the once poorly established road structure being formally paved and linked to Port-au-Prince for easy access.

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Thangy Armand, President of Haitian Foundation for the Environment, is pressuring Martelly-Lamothe administration to participate in planting a National Botanical Garden. A goal date of 2015 has been set to start the garden, pending the government's cooperation in allocating monies from the general fund.

To ensure the government meets the 2015 deadline, an oversight committee will check on the progress of the government as it seeks to win approval from Parliament to subsidize the project.

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Over two-dozen plant specialists from around the world converged on Port-au-Prince for a bio-diversity conference.

Plans to erect a National Botanical Garden were discussed, led by President Armand of Haitian Foundation for the Environment. Because Haiti's government has made no efforts to fulfill the 1987 Constitution to create a network of botanical gardens, agronomist Cinéas said an oversight committee would monitor government's progress to allocate funding from the general fund for the project by 2015.

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Botanical gardens have a special purpose: they are reserved for the growth, study, protection, and awareness of bio-diversity.

Types of plant life found in a botanical garden include ferns, evergreens, and blooming plants.

Botanical gardens were originally developed during the Renaissance period at Italian universities. They have since been established for research and instruction in medical botany in the U.S. and Northern Europe.

The Botanic Gardens Conservation International incorporates a vast network of plant species and ecology awareness programs.

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Haiti needs more than Cayes Botanical Garden to maintain and protect its biodiversity; it needs botanical gardens strategically planted throughout the island.

The 1987 Constitution states Haiti's duty is ". . . to . . . maintain botanical . . . gardens at certain points in its territory." But a National Botanical Garden has yet to be created.

CBG has offered to fill the gap for information and is putting together a program to make Haitians aware about the benefits of preserving diverse plant species.

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This is Haitian president Antoine Simon. On 6 December 1908, he was appointed successor to President Alexis.

This president had little formal education himself but managed to put around hime some of the most qualified individuals.
His advisory group consisting of influential men.

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