Tourism Minister Felix Jimenez said on the Hoy Mismo talk show yesterday, that a French architect and French environmental professor are part of a team backed by the Ministry of Tourism to carry out planning and environmental studies for tourism areas. He said the group is setting the guidelines for hotel construction in the National Park Jaragua (Bahia de las Aguilas), the National Park of the East (Bayahibe) and Samana peninsula. Jimenez describes the team as experts in sustainable tourism projects with previous developments in France, Croatia and Morocco. He called the TV program to dispute the statement made by Environment Minister Max Puig that the Ministry had not received any request for presentation of environmental impact studies, as required by law for hotel projects.
As reported in Hoy newspaper, Jimenez said the construction of the Bahia de las Aguilas’ first hotels would begin in April. Jimenez said that he had sent two letters to Environment Minister Puig requesting that he appoint officers to participate in the environmental studies the Ministry of Tourism is endorsing.
He highlighted that President Leonel Fernandez himself would preside over an announced mid-April presentation where the French experts would present the US$600 million project that would include the construction of four 70-room hotels in the Bahia de las Aguilas beach area, part of the National Park Jaragua UNESCO biosphere reserve. President Leonel Fernandez, when the project was presented to him in Paris, announced his support to the construction of the hotels.
For her part, the Deputy Minister of Environmental Management Zoila Gonzalez stated that although there may have been studies about the construction of hotels in Bahia de las Aguilas, the fact is that “they (the studies) have not been carried out according the terms of reference of the Evaluation Directorate of the Environmental Management Department, and thus, do not comply with our legal framework”. She stressed that the ministry is willing to evaluate any environmental impact analysis done in the area to see if it complies with legal requirements.
Previous studies carried out by the Academia de Ciencias, the Consorcio Ambiental Dominicano (CAD) and the World Tourism Organization advise against hotel construction in the Bahia de las Aguilas area, stressing the environmental fragility of the land. The Coalition for the Defense of Protected Areas advocates that national parks be used as attractions and recommends that hotel construction be carried out in vast beach areas that are located outside the park area, in the Cabo Rojo-Pedernales buffer area.