; (E) in recent years, urbanization has expanded exponentially and growing cities have depended on charcoal produced by cutting down trees in the countryside; (F) poor forestry and land use policies by the Government of Haiti has exacerbated deforestation, and by 2014, forest cover had decreased to approximately 9 to 11 percent of the country; and (G) between 2000 and 2016, 5,430 hectares of forest cover were lost, equal to 6.3 percent of Haiti’s tree cover; (4) in Armenia— (A) while archeological data indicated that approximately 35 percent of the country was originally forested— (i) less than 12 percent of the country was covered in forest in 1990; and (ii) less than 6 percent of the country was covered in forest by 2016; and (B) in August, 2017, a fire caused significant damage to the Khosrov Forest, which is among the world’s oldest protected areas, engulfing more than 2,733 hectares in flames and causing substantial harm to hundreds of unique plant species; (5) economic pressures, resulting from more than 60 percent of the population of Haiti living below the poverty line and 29.8 percent of the population of Armenia living below the poverty line— (A) are factors contributing to the deforestation of Haiti and Armenia; and (B) are manifested particularly through the cutting of areas of forest for conversion to agricultural and commercial uses, where wood and charcoal produced from cutting down trees accounts for a major supply toward Haiti’s and Armenia’s energy sectors; (6) forests provide cover to soften the effect of heavy rains and reduce erosion by anchoring the soil with tree roots; (7) a significant effect of the deforestation in Haiti and Armenia is soil erosion, which has— (A) lowered the productivity on the land due to the leaching of nutrients in topsoils; (B) worsened the severity of droughts and the effects of landslides and floods; (C) led to further deforestation due to slash and burn practices when eroded areas are no longer productive