Haiti National Trust

The trust also advocates protection of the country's fragile coral reefs and coastal ecosystems.

[2] Because Haiti has a rich biodiversity which is nearly all threatened because old growth forests have been reduced to one or a few percent of their original extent, the country itself is considered a hot spot.

[1] Two of those, La Visite and Macaya, were the two original national parks of Haiti and their biodiversity has been studied by teams of biologists in the past.

[4][5] Most of the remaining hot spots were poorly known or unknown before teams of biologists and students, led by the Haiti National Trust cofounders, visited the sites to survey vertebrates, selected plants, and other species.

[1] This work led to the discovery of new species of lizards,[6] frogs, and plants, and the rediscovery of vertebrates and plants thought to be extinct such as the Tiburon stream frog (Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus), La Hotte twig anole (Anolis darlingtoni), and Ekman's magnolia (Magnolia ekmanii).