The Chamber of Deputies could pass a bill today that would reduce the environmentally protected areas of the nation by 71.5%. The majority of the PRD and PRSC deputies have chosen not to heed the advice of the environmental, tourism, business and church sectors, who are pleading to have the Ley Sectorial de Areas Protegidas removed from the chamber agenda until after the 16 May elections and then subject to further study by experts. Speaking for the National Council of Business, Rafael Blanco Canto of the Bayahibe Tourism Cluster urged that the technical aspects of the Senate bill be revised before its approval. When passed in the first reading on Tuesday, deputies did not take the time to even read the controversial bill that surrenders large national park lands to tourism and mining development. El Dia newspaper reports today that Environmental Law 64-00 establishes the existence of 66 conserved areas, comprising 36,500 square meters nationwide. The bill passed by the Senate and by a first reading in the Chamber of Deputies would reduce the protected area to only 10,391 square kilometers. National park extensions would be reduced from 9,567 square kilometers to 7,691.8 kilometers. The areas most affected would be those such as Bahia de las Aguilas, Isla Beata and Alto Velo, in the province of Pedernales in the Southwest, and Saona and large areas of the National Park of the East in the Eastern part of the country.
Speaking on the ?Uno + Uno? TV program this morning, President Hipolito Mejia said that Bahia de las Aguilas beach area would not be touched and hotels would be built in the area of Cabo Rojo and Pedernales. The congressional bill, nevertheless, allows the construction of hotels in Bahia de las Aguilas that is part of the UNESCO biosphere reserve. The bill modifications would also do away with the whale sanctuary in Samana.