In a positive step towards preserving the environment in the nation’s mountains and watersheds, the Ministry of Environment together with the Santiago Water and Sewer Corporation (Coraasan) and the Hydroelectric Generation Company (EgeHID), a division of the Public Electricity Corporation (CDEEE), paid farmers more than RD$1 million for environmental services to protect the watersheds on the northern slope of the Cordillera Central Mountain Range.
The ceremony was held at the main water treatment plant of Coraasan in the Rafey sector of the city. Owners of lands within the prioritized watersheds received their checks corresponding to the third payment from the director general of Coraasan Silvio Duran. Also present were Domínguez Rodríguez, who coordinates provincial activities for the Ministry of the Environment, and Demetrio Lluberes, the administrator of EgeHID.
28 farmers benefited from the first phase of the program. They were from the communities in La Descubierta, La Palma, Arroyo Frio of Constanza, Paso Bajito, Los Dajaos and Manabao in Jarabacoa.
The Coraasan director general Silvio Durán said that this project would prevent the destruction of the rivers and streams that originate in the small micro watersheds.
The Payment for Environmental Services (PSA, in Spanish) initiative protects the many small aquifers born in the high mountains that supply clean water to the Yaque del Norte River, arguably the most economically important fresh water resource in the entire Dominican Republic.
The United Nations FAO has encouraged the implementation of the program, emphasizing that the demand for environmental services from agriculture – including climate change mitigation, improved watershed management and biodiversity preservation will increase in the future, but better incentives to farmers are needed if agriculture is to meet this demand.
As one among several other possible policy tools, payments to farmers for environmental services are seen as a flexible approach to enhancing farmer incentives to sustain and improve the ecosystems on which we all depend.
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Ministry of Environment
22 June 2017
