Jean Wiener
Scientist / Researcher / Liaison
Bio
Born in Haiti and living there for most of his life, Jean Wiener grew up seeing firsthand the extreme degradation of agricultural and fisheries production which has been devastating not only for the environment but also for the local populations dependent on these activities. Intense pressures on limited farmland and marine resources mixed with inappropriate agricultural and fisheries practices were producing a socio-eco-environmental disaster on a national scale. He decided that something serious needed to be done in his homeland, and convinced that Haiti’s overall recovery hinged on a healthy and sustainably managed environment, after finishing school in the United States he set out to engage Haiti (in a broad sense) and assist in its environmental, and hopefully, overall recovery, as best he could. In 1992 Jean started the Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine (FoProBiM), an NGO with a primary goal of protecting the environment in general, and coastal and marine resources in particular. Twenty years later it remains the only NGO in Haiti with this guiding principle.
