Samana — Palm Plantations of Death

Photographs and text by

Jan Smith

On the road from Santo Domingo to Samaná there is stretch with many miles of oil palm plantations on each side of the highway. Within this corridor there is a smaller section, itself quite large, of nothing but dead oil palms.

When they grow beyond a certain age, oil palms become less fertile and provide fewer nuts. At that time they are culled, to make way for a new generation of saplings. Sawing the trees is too arduous and the palms are instead denied water and fed chemicals to dry them.

Of all the ways to die, the thirst of a tree, is the slowest.

— Jan Smith

Samana — Palm Plantations of Death

Jan Smith

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