President Mejia went East to Punta Cana on Saturday, 17 March to be present at the formal opening of the Centro de Biodiversidad Cornell-Punta Cana. The center is a joint project of the University of Cornell and the Grupo Punta Cana (owners of tourist resorts and the Punta Cana International Airport). The Center is in charge of an ecological preserve of 10,000 tareas. US Congressman Charles Rangel came for the event. Also present was Ted Kheel of the Grupo Punta Cana, who made the contact with the university, his own alma mater. Also attending were Minister of Foreign Relations Hugo Tolentino Dipp and Minister of Environment Frank Moya Pons. Frank Rainieri, president of the Punta Cana Group explained that the center is a RD$25 million investment and has already carried out an inventory of the birds in the zone. It will soon have for sale a CD with the songs of the birds, including the second smallest bird in the world. The biodiversity center seeks to preserve the flora and fauna on the Punta Cana area now under intense tourism development, with 18,000 hotel rooms, most having gone up in the past 10 years. Dr. Mitchell Gaynor came from the University of Cornell to give a conference for the occasion. The Center has signed an agreement with the Instituto Nacional de Investigaciones Agropecuarias y Forestales for future research. The center will promote exchanges between scientists and scholars of the US and the DR. Its work seeks to make valuable contributions to the area ecology, the development of new medicines, the economy and culture. (19 March 2001)
