Description

The Martissant National Urban Park (PNU-MAR) was created on April 7th, 2017 by presidential decree. It is based on the former residences of Mangonès and Katherine-Dunham and on the remains of the residences of Destouches and Pauline Leclerc. Since its creation, this urban forest that covers a total area of 12.55 ha and a perimeter of 2.14 kilometers in the 3rd communal section of Port-au-Prince has been managed by the Knowledge and Freedom Foundation (FOKAL). This park is the only large wooded area in the Haitian capital dedicated to environmental promotion and improvement. 

Biodiversity

Martissant Park is a great area for the conservation of plant species. Through its botanical garden, it exhibits a set of the most sought-after plants and trees in the Caribbean. There is a variety of orchid species, the Albizia Julibrissin or persian silk tree that, with its bouquets of fine pink flowers, provokes a feeling of perfect happiness and well-being in the midst of this precarious district. Castor bean (Ricinus communis) and Aloe plants adorn its medicinal garden and exhibit the secular knowledge of the Haitian population. Its varieties of lettuce, eggplant, tomato, and spinach make up the beauty of this place of enormous floristic diversity. 

Ecotourism potential

This floristic richness of its botanical, medicinal and market gardens, combined with the Katherine Dunham cultural center, make Martissant Park an ideal space for education, recreation and tourism. This former place of residence of the wife of General Leclerc, sent from France by Napoleon Bonaparte in the 18th century, offers an unimaginable connection with nature and a favorable setting for relaxation, decompression and escape; this makes this park the perfect place for the initiation to reading, meditation and African dance.