The people of El Seibo see their ticket out of poverty in the development of tourism projects along their 40 kilometer beach line. Studies have shown that 85% of the inhabitants of El Seibo are poor. Most residents live off farming, with rice the main money crop. Rice plantations were affected by Hurricane Georges, nevertheless, making poorer the rural inhabitants of El Seibo. The leading city, Miches, is best known as a last stop for those taking illegal boat trips to Puerto Rico. The 22,000 inhabitants of the populated area, feel tourism development can help them change that image. The main obstacle to tourism development are different government decrees. Hoy newspaper reports that the first of these decrees, No. 1315 of 11 August 1983, declared the Lagunas Redonda (12.5 square kilometers) and Limón (17 square kilometers) as Natural Scientific Reserves. Years later, Decree 479 of 15 December 1986 named the more southern Macao-Punta Cana area of La Altagracia province as a priority area for tourism development. The people of Miches say that it has been the persons with interests in this area that have stopped the development of the areas with tourism potential within El Seibo province. Then decree 309 of 31 December 1995 repealed the Scientific Reserve category, converting the area into a restricted natural reserve. By way of Decree 319-97, the government of President Fernández declared the lagoons as a National Park. Residents of the province now are appealing to the government to modify the decree to permit tourism to develop. The Mayor of Miches, José Ramón Vargas, of the PRD, says that you can’t stop tourism development because in the long run that is what people will make a living off.
