Anne-Isabelle Bonifassi: Restoring Haiti’s Forests and Rewriting Its Narrative

A conservation biologist, Anne-Isabelle Bonifassi has led the Haiti National Trust since December 2020. The organization reforests the Massif de la Hotte and works to save species on the brink of extinction. In June 2026, these efforts earned her the National Geographic Wayfinder Award. This is a portrait of a committed advocate determined to change how the world sees Haiti.

A Childhood Surrounded by Animals<br/>It all began at home. Anne-Isabelle Bonifassi grew up in Haiti but also spent part of her childhood in Africa and Vietnam, where her parents took in animals rescued from poaching. “I have always been surrounded by species,” she told the Netherlands Committee of the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).

According to her biography published by the NAAHP, she studied biology and agronomy in Canada after completing secondary school in Haiti, and later earned an MBA. On her return, the environmental sector offered few employment opportunities, so she turned to business. According to the Haiti National Trust, she spent some twenty years in that field, notably in operations management.

Her first position in conservation was with 4ocean, an ocean clean-up organization. However, as she told IUCN Netherlands, “my heart is in terrestrial biodiversity.” In late 2020, she took the helm of the Haiti National Trust. She subsequently completed a master’s degree in forest resources and conservation at the University of Florida. She also serves on the boards of the Caribbean Biodiversity Fund and the Haitian Biodiversity Fund.

Grand Bois: Her Life’s Work<br/>Her principal field site is Grand Bois National Park, in the Massif de la Hotte, one of the country’s last remaining primary forests. “Haiti is on the verge of losing all its forests,” she warned as early as 2022 in a report by the NGO Re:wild.

Her team’s results speak for themselves. According to the Haiti National Trust’s 2025 annual report, 321,813 native and endemic trees have been planted in Grand Bois since 2022, including 83,994 in 2025 alone. The report further states that more than 84 hectares of forest have been restored, approximately 23 percent of the park, and that women reportedly make up 40 percent of the nursery and restoration workforce.

In January 2026, the ANAP renewed for five years (2026–2030) the park management mandate entrusted to HNT and the Audubon Society of Haiti.

Land acquisition is one of her central battles, as most logging occurs on land that HNT does not own. “One of the greatest challenges for conservation in Haiti is land tenure,” she explained to IUCN Netherlands. The Land Acquisition Fund has financed the purchase of 32 private plots within the park.

She also oversees the protection of unique species, all classified as critically endangered according to the Haiti National Trust: Attalea crassispatha, described as the rarest palm in the Americas; Magnolia ekmanii; and the frog Eleutherodactylus semipalmatus. In 2025, at the fifth conference of the Caribaea Initiative in Martinique, she presented the in situ conservation of this palm, one of the few plant rescue projects in the country.

From Loggers to Guardians

She firmly believes that the forest can be saved only with the participation of those who live in it. She likes to point out that people who once cut down trees have become their most passionate defenders, as she recounted to Polo Lifestylesmagazine.
Telling a Different Story of Haiti

Anne-Isabelle Bonifassi is also fighting against a stereotype. “We only hear about Haiti when negative things happen, but that is not all Haiti is,” she has stated. She told IUCN Netherlands that she has seen “many doors close, simply because it is Haiti.”

One phrase recurs from interview to interview: species know neither borders nor politics, and they cannot wait for stability.

The Award: “Such a Wild Dream”<br/>On 10 June 2026, the Haiti National Trust announced that its executive director had received the 2026 National Geographic Wayfinder Award, presented by Kia. This annual award from the National Geographic Society is conferred on 15 individuals worldwide in recognition of achievements in science, conservation, education, technology, and storytelling. Recipients become National Geographic Explorers and receive funding to support their work.

The 2026 cohort was honored at the National Geographic Explorers Festival on 18 June in Washington, D.C. There, Anne-Isabelle Bonifassi joined fellow honorees including geologist Folarin Kolawole of Columbia University and South African diver Silindile Mbuyazi.

“As a child, that yellow frame was a window onto a world of wonders,” the awardee said in the HNT press release. “If someone had told me that one day I would find myself inside it, for work I love so deeply, I would never have believed it.”

She dedicated the award to “Haiti’s extraordinary biodiversity” and to the entire HNT team.

Regrettably, this work does not appear to be recognized in Haiti.

Editorial staff