Environment Minister Francisco Domínguez Brito has said that the government-ordered de-occupation of land in Valle Nuevo, which the state has decided to protect, can no longer be delayed. The Minister said the extent of environmental degradation is so extensive that neither man nor nature could fully restore the area. He observed that that the damage to the environment in Valle Nuevo could not be corrected in 10 or 20 years, even by means of reforestation, due to the low temperatures of the area. Temperatures in Valle Nuevo frequently fall below freezing point.
He also repeated that the timetable for all inhabitants to leave the area would not be extended. A case is pending in the Superior Administrative Court to approve or deny a request by the landowners that they be given until 10 March 2017 to leave Valle Nuevo, rather than on 29 January deadline established by the Ministry.
Domínguez Brito emphasized that the natural resources of Valle Nuevo benefit 7 million Dominicans through services for agriculture, the generation of electricity and a great deal of the domestic water used throughout the country.
The minister acknowledged that there were people in Valle Nuevo who wanted the deadline for leaving extended, but he reiterated that timetable would not be modified. Dominguez Brito said that calls for the government to compensate landowners and farmers for leaving Valle Nuevo were not being considered. He said the only thing on the government’s agenda in this case was the constitutional mandate that there should be no intensive or extensive agriculture in Valle Nuevo.
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El Caribe
18 January 2017
