The BAS - Agroforestry Brigades

The MPP has been interested in nature conservation and sustainable agricultural practices since its inception.

At the same time, the movement has always tried to encourage forms of peasant self-help that are alternatives to isolation and the multiplication of conflicts.

At the beginning of the 1980s, the MPP was able to observe new deforestation practices and the transformation of wood into charcoal. Until then, legislation prevented logging and people collected wood, but did not produce charcoal intensively.

The organisation then proposed to the farmers to organise themselves into BAS_Brigades Agro Sylvicoles, i.e. farmers’ self-help groups around production activities that are concerned with the preservation of nature. The aim was to train farmers as agroforestry instructors who would train and accompany these BAS.

Emmanuel Joseph, MPP facilitator at a training session with peasants.

The MPP supports 2 types of farmers’ collectives :
– On the one hand, peasant groups that commit to carrying out a collective economic activity of agricultural production/processing, breeding, or handicrafts.

– On the other hand, agro-silvicultural brigades (BAS) which set up reforestation and soil erosion control activities on members’ plots. Both the groups and the BAS use agro-ecological techniques.

The BAS promote mutual aid and peer learning : it is the collective that serves the individuals ; whereas within the groups, it is the individual who serves the collective through a solidarity-based approach.

The groups and BAS participate in mobilization and advocacy actions organized by the MPP to promote food sovereignty and the role of the peasant farmer in Haiti.
Today, the MPP has structured its training program in agroecology, especially with the accompaniment of Frères des Hommes during the projects from 2011 to 2018. Today it is a one-year work-study programme. The diagram below presents the structure of that training program.