A report by the DR’s Academy of Sciences due to be formally presented tomorrow, but leaked today by the news daily Hoy, alleges significant ecological damage to the coastal areas of B?varo and Bayahibe by construction firms and hotels. "Report on the Environmental Impact of Tourism in B?varo and Bayahibe" refutes claims by Tourism Minister F?lix Jim?nez that recent press reports on environmental damage by tourism projects are all false. Among other things, the Academy report says that (1) the Natura Park Hotel has seriously harmed the vegetation and hydraulic balance of B?varo Lagoon, which is supposedly protected by Presidential Decree 309 of 1995, and may be endangering a disappearing fish species that cannot only be found in this lagoon; (2) there is a high degree of beach erosion around the Hotel Caribbean Village; (3) extraction of sand is seriously threatening the ecosystems of nearby coastlines; (4) tourism is being developed in Bayahibe without the proper sanitary infrastructure being built, and the hotel complexes there are threatening the ecological balance of the National Park of the East while destroying valuable archeological sites.
