Members of the board of the Dominican Agribusiness Board (JAD) met on Thursday, 19 January 2017, with Environment Minister Francisco Domínguez Brito to discuss proposals for farms located in mountain areas.
The JAD sought to present a framework for public policies for the adequate development of cattle ranching and farming in the mountainous areas. Speaking for the JAD, Osmar Benítez, executive president of the JAD, said that there is the need to build a public-private alliance to develop best agricultural practices in mountainous terrain so that potential farming systems are not in conflict with environmental conservation. The proposal would establish protocols for land use and environmental impact studies that would take into account a number of factors, including potential climate change adaptation and mitigation.
Likewise, JAD’s proposal focuses introducing strategies to arrest the degradation of mountainous areas, improving and diversifying agroforestry in river basins, promoting sustainable management of natural resources and strengthening the administration of protected areas. The plan also calls for improvement and investment in aspects such as management of solid wastes, clean energy and the reduction of chemical contamination.
Benítez pointed out: “The Dominican Republic has 37 mountain regions distributed in the Central, Septentrional and Oriental mountain ranges and in the Bahoruco and Neiba mountains. Our country has a great farming tradition and potential, therefore, it is important to develop proposals for the sustainable agricultural use of these mountainous areas.”
Participating was the board of the JAD, including the president of the organization Wilfredo Cabrera, Ulises de Beras and Ricardo Barceló of the Asociación Dominicana de Hacendados y Agricultores (ADHA), Alexis Alonso, president of the Patronato Nacional de Ganaderos among others.
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El Caribe
20 January 2017
