The Environmental Defense Coalition, which includes all the groups opposed to the Sectorial Law on Protected Areas (2002-04 of 30 July 2004) has called the Supreme Court ruling “false and out of context”, and has announced it will begin a series of protests.
The Coalition’s response to the controversial decision is that if the law is applied, then the government should order the demolition of all tourist installations between Bavaro, Cabeza de Toro and Cabo Engano because they are within an area defined as a Wild Fauna Refuge Reserve, according to Law 2002-04. He said this also goes for the tourist installations between Punta Cana, Juanillo and Punta Espada whose beaches and coral reefs are located in a Category II area. He also said that residents of La Catalina in Maria Trinidad Sanchez and Cabeza de Toro in La Altragracia should be evicted because these areas are now defined as Natural Monuments within Categories III and IV, after the monuments were expanded to include communities in the area.
The Coalition considers that the law validated by the Supreme Court of Justice violates the Washington Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Washington Convention), the UNESCO Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, and the United Nations Convention on Biological Biodiversity, among other international treaties.
In its arguments in favor of the endorsement, the Supreme Court had mentioned China, Peru, Chile and Mexico as countries with low percentages of protected territory compared to the DR. The Supreme Court says that the law establishes that 20% of national territory is reserved for protected areas, compared to China with only 6.2%, France with 11.7%, Peru with 2.7% and Mexico with 2.4%. But the Coalition says that it is strange that it did not mention islands, like the DR, such as Taiwan and the Canary Islands where protected areas account for 50% of the territory, or Costa Rica and Israel where 40% of the territory is under some kind of protection.
Luis Carvajal of the Academy of Sciences said that a particular interest can be linked to every change made in the Sectorial Protected Areas Law, as reported in Diario Libre. In a press conference called yesterday, he mentioned for instance that the area of Pico Diego de Ocampo was modified to legalize appropriations made by Hugo Mella and the forestry interests of the Mera family, among other interested parties who benefited from the changes in the original law sent to Congress by former environment minister Frank Moya Pons.