President Luis Abinader calls the National Reforestation Plan one of national security. He says that all government agencies will be dedicated to defend, protect and support it. He made the remark when participating with the Ministry of Environment in the National Reforestation Plan for 2023-2024 presentation.
President Abinader said that whoever attempts against forestry and rivers is attempting against the national security of the Dominican Republic. The Ministry of Environment is confronting the illegal aggregate extraction from river basins.
“This government will not only restore our river basins, but regardless of who affects them, we will protect them above any particular interest. To protect our river basins is to protect life. This is the main interest that all Dominicans must have,” assured President Abinader.
During the presentation of the National Reforestation Plan – Restoration of Forest Ecosystems 2023-2024, the head of state said that the necessary resources for the execution of the reforestation plan have already been transferred and authorized to the Ministry of the Environment.
In addition, he said all ministries and institutions have been convened to the Presidential Palace this week for a meeting to ensure they support this plan.
“I also ask the whole society of the Dominican Republic, especially the environmental community, but they are already integrated, but the whole community, the whole Dominican society, to be integrated to support this program,” he insisted.
He said the Ministry of Education plans to begin to raise the awareness of the students from the basic schools and to continue also in the high schools. The Ministry of Education plans to equip new environmental polytechnics in the country’s different regions.
Environment Minister Miguel Ceara Hatton spoke of the six priorities:
Environmental education
Water
The impact of climate change
The Caribbean Sea
Solid waste management
Licenses
Ceara Hatto said that in the Dominican Republic the relationship people have with the environment must change. He called for starting with children in school to change the mindset so people give the environment is due value.
“Just as everyone understands stealing, killing and transgressing the law is wrong, affecting the environment is also wrong, because in the long run it is affecting our living conditions,” Ceara Hatton emphasized.
He said the government is initiating the National Reforestation Plan in protected areas, because reforestation guarantees that the country will keep its water sources.
The Deputy Minister of Forest Resources of the Ministry of the Environment José Elías González presented the National Reforestation Plan (restoration of forest ecosystems). He explained that the goal is to reforest 320,000 tareas (629 square meters to one tarea) of land in the 31 provinces of the country, including reforestation in coastal areas.
He also emphasized that other ministries and public institutions will be incorporated to help in the reforestation project.
The director of the Forestry Department of the Ministry of Environment Máximo Aquino said that 4,000 native and naturalized tree species will be planted at the beginning of the National Reforestation Program. 1,500 species of Caribea pine, 1,500 of Caobas Criollas, 500 of bamboo, 500 of cedar species will be planted.
He explained the National Reforestation Plan is being implemented under the philosophy of integral management of the Priority Hydrographic Basins that have been identified.
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Ministry of Environment
6 June 2023