Environment Minister invited actress Nashla Bogaert and film director Jose Maria Cabral (Island of Plastics documentary), two local film stars active in conservation, to the signing of the order that bans foam and single-user plastics from Saona Island (Cotubanamá National Park) and Catalina Island in La Altagracia and La Romana provinces.
The Ministry of Environment signed Resolution 0024-2023 on Saturday, 28 May 2023 in Mano Juan Beach of Saona, marking the new effort for the sustainability of the protected areas in the Cotubanamá National Park and Catalina Island. The resolution establishes that tour operators or beach concessionaires that violate the no plastics rule will have their licenses, authorizations or concession contracts revoked or suspended.
Resolution 0024-2023 establishes that within 60 days and with the participation of local authorities, fishermen, tourists, tour operators and the population in general, all the necessary measures be taken so that Saona and Catalina Islands can be free of foam and single-use plastic.
Environment Minister Miguel Ceara Hatton said at the signing that so far, nature has been subordinate to human beings, but that the present and the future demand human beings that turn sustainability into an internalized culture. “Now we have to learn to coexist with nature,” he said.
“One of the things I have learned in the ministry is how difficult it is for people to understand that water is life, that water is a national security issue,” said Ceara Hatton.
In this context, he recalled the impossibility of the government keeping one or ten surveillance agents policing each river. He said the determining factor will always be the social commitment to care for the water sources. He also called attention to the need to care for the Caribbean Sea and other countries in the area.
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Ministry of Environment
30 May 2023