Community Empowerment for Environmental Protection and Management

Erosion Control, Salt marsh restoration and Streambank Stabilization
By: Macceau Médozile (The Medozile Research and Training Group MRTG)

Abstract:

Over-population and land use activities affect different ecotypes’ dynamism in urban and rural environments. Floodplains, forests, stream channels, vernal pools, salt marshes and riparian areas are among the most sensitive ecosystems that are being degraded by human and industrial activities around the world and especially in low income or poor communities. For example, Jorgenson’s study on Consumption and environmental degradation provides empirical evidence suggesting that the effects of certain predictor variables on environmental impacts do vary among world-system zones. Household income inequality in the core has a positive effect on per capita footprints while the impact of the former in all other zones is negative (Jorgenson 2003).

This study suggests a variety of techniques to help repair environmental degradation (erosion control, salt marsh restoration, streambank stabilization, deforestation, etc…) and uses the South Bronx (New York City) community as a classical example of community empowerment for environmental protection and restoration.

The South Bronx is a region of the New York City borough of The Bronx. According to Wikipedia (the free encyclopedia), the term was first coined in the 1940s by a group of social workers who identified the Bronx's first pocket of poverty, in the Mott Haven section, the southernmost section of the Bronx. Originally denoting only Mott Haven and Melrose, the South Bronx extended up to the Cross Bronx Expressway by the 1970s, encompassing Hunts Point, Morrisania, and Highbridge. It was around this time that the Bronx was experiencing some of its worst times ever due to white flight, redlining, landlord abandonment and government indifference.

One of the most important natural resources of the Bronx is the “Bronx River”. It was derived from the name of Jonas Bronck, the first European settler in Westchester County. In 1639, the Scandinavian-born Bronck purchased 500 acres from the Dutch between the Harlem River and the Aquehung (later the Bronx) River. Since then, South Bronx became a commercial/industrial area, gradually polluted by heavy industrial and residential wastes.

In the mid 90’s, the South Bronx community started brainstorming on air, water pollution and seeking for new alternatives to protect and restore natural areas (resources). Community leaders, local politicians and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) “shepherded efforts for increased public access, educational activities and habitat restoration in that area.”

Actually, community-based organizations, scientists and volunteers are working together to restore living marine resource habitats (such as salt marshes, intertidal flats, riverine floodplain and riverbanks), acquire lands to facilitate enhancement or restoration of the lower Bronx River, improve public access to the river and educate children and adults of an underutilized local treasure and the environment in general (from the Bronx Zoo Web Site).

Full study will be available on: www.georgetown.edu , www.haiculture.net , www.aux-cayes.com , www.cass-alumni.net and www.haiti-universite.org