Environment Minister Max Puig said that he would not give in to public or private pressures in the fulfillment of his duty to defend the country’s national parks and protected areas. In a written document, he says that one cannot combat poverty by destroying the country’s environmental heritage. “We consider it irresponsible to deplete the country’s natural wealth to benefit a minority, without thinking of the poor,” he stated in a recent document.
Recently, several sectors have publicly protested about what they describe as “bottlenecks” that several tourism projects are experiencing in securing Ministry of Environment permits to develop projects in national park areas.