Diario Libre, Listin Diario and many other main-stream media have been covering recent environmental violations, many of which are said to have occurred with the complicity of high-ranking government environment officers.
Making a call to protect water sources and biodiversity, environmentalists speaking during a round table for the Esta Noche con Mariasela variety TV program last week once again called national attention to repeated violations of Environmental Law 64-00 and Protected Area Law 202-04 by Deputy Minister for Protected Areas Federico Franco. The panelists urged President Luis Abinader to take action to defend the water sources and biodiversity of the Dominican Republic. Panel members were Ricardo Ripoll of Somos Pueblo muckraking digital platform; environmental lawyer Nelson Pimentel, UASD environmental coordinator Luis Carvajal and climate change activist Enrique de Leon. The panelists focused on recent abnormalities in decision-making, removing of experts from the Ministry of Environment, the lack of forest rangers to patrol the protected areas, lack of sufficient budget and violations of environmental laws.
Ricardo Ripoll said his Somos Pueblo platform has over the years denounced the issues pinpointing how the government authorities are looking the other way. He attributed much of the present critical situations to actions taken after Federico Franco was named deputy minister of Environment with the change of government in 2020. He said Franco began by firing the experienced staff. Several others left when for being in contradiction with their new boss (Franco).
Ripoll says that Franco did not have an environmental background when joining the Ministry in 2020. He spoke of the many “absurdities and violations of the law” that have come from Franco’s personal decisions. He said he cannot understand how four years later Franco remains in the position, nor why Minister Miguel Ceara Hatton has tolerated Franco. Franco can only be removed by President Luis Abinader. Ceara Hatton was named to the position in 2022 following the murder of Minister Orlando Jorge Mera over disputed environmental permissions.
Nelson Pimentel, a lawyer who is the coordinator for the Instituto de Abogados para la Protección del Medio Ambiente (Insaproma) and director of the Fundación de Derecho, Defensa y Educación Ambiental de la República Dominicana (FUDDEA-RD), called the current situation “a national security issue.” He stressed the DR is an island and needs to do all possible to protect its water sources. “We are an island. We have to take care of what we have left,” he said.
He said what is happening is “the most-true demonstration of total absence of planning behind the decisions at the Ministry of Environment”. He said: “The Ministry cannot depend on the unilateral and personal decision of a government officer. The National System of Protected Areas [Sinap] is transverse and fundamental for the ecosystem balance of the country. It cannot depend on a personal will. The most delicate thing in the Sinap is that it has to go beyond the personalization of Federico Franco.”
The Esta Noche con Mariasela program mentioned high-profile environmental crimes including the depredation at the Bani Dunes, the case of extracting of aggregate from Tireo River in Costanza that ended with the murder of a farmer who had been actively protesting the extractions, cases in Quita Espuela protected area, and Sierra de Bahoruco, slash and burn in the Jose del Carmen Ramirez (Valle Nuevo) park, Estero Balsa (Montecristi), destruction of mangroves in Azua, among others.
Luis Carvajal, coordinator for the environmental commission of the state university UASD, raised red flags for what may happen in the future regarding the implementation of the Land Use Law. He expressed concern the recently passed Land Use Law awards deciding rights to the ministries of Tourism and Mining, despite apparent conflicts of interest. The law is pending its ruling for application.
Enrique de Leon focused on damages caused in the Azua area with the operation of the Punta Catalina coal-fired power plant and where the Abinader government authorized the installation of a power barge.
The environmentalists protested that while the government talks about increasing protected areas, on the other hand, it does not comply with the laws, nor funds adequate protection of the already existing protected areas.
At the end of the program, TV host Mariasela Alvarez called for President Luis Abinader to take action to counteract the interventions by the deputy minister. Alvarez speculated there has to be complicity in the government for the environmental crimes to continue happening.
The Vice Minister of Protected Areas Federico Franco did not accept the invitation to participate in the panel nor sent a representative.
Follow the story in Spanish:
Esta Noche con Mariasela
Somos Pueblo
Diario Libre
Listin Diario
30 April 2024