As reported in yesterday’s DR1 News, the Parque del Este has been proposed as the site for a new hotel project by the influential Spanish travel consortium, Globalia, owner of Air Europa. The outcry from environmental groups and the Environment Ministry, however, are threatening to stall the proposal. Even at the Tourism Ministry, there seems to be a dearth of information about the project being pushed through by President Mejia. The idea of installing 1,200 new hotel rooms in the south-eastern tip of the Dominican Republic must go through the Ministry of Tourism’s offices and, according to the interim minister, Miguelina Ortiz, nothing has been received relating to such a project. This news from the ministry comes at a time when there are many groups questioning the expropriation of 4 million square meters of parkland for the hotel complex construction. In Congress, the Senate vice-president and member of the Commission on the Environment, Johnny Morales, has defended the proposal, but more than 30 local and international ecological groups have decried the notion of taking such a sizeable piece of the park and turning it into a hotel property. The preservation of the park is seen as vital to the sustenance of tourism in the area, according to Lisette Gil, spokeswoman for the Hotel Association of Romana-Bayahibe. The Parque del Este was established in 1975 and holds 572 different species of vegetation, of which 484 are native, 53 are endemic and 35 have been newly-introduced. One of the jewels of the park is the only existing example of Peresquia Quisqueyana, a leaf cactus. There are 17 species of fauna (14 land and 3 sea species), 144 species of birds and 26 types of reptiles. There are also incredible archeological sites, most notably the famous caves of Jose Maria and Ramoncito.