2004News

Academy of Sciences confronts the law

The Dominican Academy of Sciences has taken on the Sectoral Protected Areas Law and plans to submit the disputed legislation to the Supreme Court. The academy argues that the legislation is full of technical and legal errors, as well as violations of international agreements and conventions. The scientists say the internal contradictions and other mistakes will make the law impossible to enforce, and, because of this, they will challenge its constitutionality in the Supreme Court. El Caribe reports that the Academy of Sciences says the National Park of the East, Cabo Cambron and Jaragua were reduced to scraps in order to satisfy land titles and real estate operations of dubious origin. The scientists told El Caribe reporter Panky Corcino that the geographic absurdities are so notable, especially to do with the limits of Diego de Ocampo mountain towards Puerto Plata and the distortion of the Miguel Canela Lazaro Scientific Reserve, whose boundaries were listed many kilometers away from the area intended.