The Fundación Moscoso Puello has stated: The Valle Nuevo is the most important national environmental asset and is being destroyed with impunity.”
What is known is that several farmers are attempting to retake farm land in the Valle Nuevo National Park in the protected areas of Montellano and Pinalito. Hoy reported farmers in Pinalito were applying herbicide to prepare the land for planting last Wednesday, 31 October 2018.
In 2016, around 409 farmers were evicted from the protected area. Of these, 50 were identified as farm hands that lived inside the park and the government built new homes for these affected residents. But, other farmers say the government did not build the nurseries it said it would for farmers to continue to have a livelihood.
When Francisco Domínguez Brito was minister of Environment, Resolution 12/2016 was issued implementing a rescue plan for the protected area, upholding recommendations made by the Co-management Council of the protected area on 29 September 2016. Members of the Co-management Council are Fundación Moscoso Puello, Fundación Propagas, Museo Nacional de Historia Nacional “Prof. Eugenio de Jesús Marcano”, la Asociación The Nature Conservancy, the Jardín Botánico Dr. Rafael Moscoso Puello, the Asociación para el Desarrollo de San José de Ocoa, el Consejo Ambiental de Constanza, la Federación de Campesinos Hacia el Progreso, the Fundación Sur Futuro and Rafael Collado representing community people of the municipality of Cosntanza in La Vega and the Ministry of Environment.
The farmers are now demanding that they receive the same treatment as the illegal occupants of the south side of the protected area, the San José de Ocoa side, where farming has not stopped despite the resolution issued by the Ministry of Environment. According to the resolution the farming in that area should have been halted by April of this year. The Ministry of Environment, nevertheless, has a new minister. Angel Estevez, who previously was the country’s Minister of Agriculture and has spoken openly in favor of harmonizing farming and protected lands. The media has published statements attributed Estevez in favor of agriculture, despite the threat to national water sources.
While denied by Minister Estevez, the Fundacion Moscoso Puello documented the land invasion using drone technology showing the farm exploitation of park land in La Morita, La Nuez, La Loma de los Chivos and Las Espinas, primarily on the south side of San Jose de Ocoa, where the Ministry of Environment has yet to implement the 2016 resolution that ordered the end of farming in the area. The Foundation says the Ministry has not responded to evidence of the farming activity.
Among the photos is one showing the Ministry of Environment checkpoint in La Morita completely abandoned which is allowing unfettered access of farming equipment and petrochemicals to the protected area. The photographs also show illegal immigrants farming. There is intense avocado planting activity going on.
The Foundation shows a photo with pipes for transporting water for several kilometers, representing multi-million peso investments that small farmers could not underwrite. The Ministry of Environment is accused of looking the other way while major farming takes place in the protected lands.
The Foundation said that the Plan de Rescate del Parque Nacional Valle Nuevo implemented in 2016-2017 was a major achievement of civil society and the Ministry and the new incumbents are in the legal obligation to continue the policy.
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Diario Libre
7 November 2018
