On occasion of International Day of Forests, President Medina noted that nearly 1,000 acres (1 acre = 6 tareas) in Hondo Valle, Elías Piña province on the border with Haiti, that have been reforested. Environment Minister Francisco Dominguez Brito noted that the seven projects located in Juan Santiago, Padre Las Casas, Sabaneta and Hondo Valle will generate jobs and income to help slow the exodus of youth to the big cities.
But El Nacional newspaper noted that the fly in the ointment was the statement by workers in the forestry nurseries in the mountains complaining that they had gone three months without receiving their salaries. The workers complained that now the bodegas will not extend them anymore credit since they had not received their pay checks since December.
