President Luis Abinader of the Dominican Republic and outgoing President Iván Duque of Colombia signed a joint declaration on Tuesday, 26 July 2022 that creates a protected maritime area for the conservation of the underwater mountain range known as Cresta de Beata in the Caribbean Sea. The agreement is regarded as a model for the Caribbean region because it comes close to complying with the Global 30 x 30 Initiative, well before 2030.
The protected area will be called the Orlando Jorge Mera Marine Sanctuary in honor of the late Minister of Environment, who had been working on this conservation project for months.
The signing of the joint declaration between the two governments took place virtually, with President Luis Abinader together with the Minister of Environment Miguel Ceara Hatton, in the Ambassadors Hall of the National Palace, and President Iván Duque and the Minister of Environment of Colombia, Carlos Eduardo Correa signing in Colombia.
Ecological corridors are areas that connect spaces of great eco-systemic importance to allow the movement of the species that inhabit them.
“Currently, the Dominican Republic has approximately 11% (about 45,000 km2) of its maritime spaces under protection. With this decision, we are doubling the area of our territorial seas that are protected marine spaces, adding 49,000 square kilometers to the existing ones, an extension similar to the entire territory of the Dominican Republic,” said President Abinader speaking at the event.
The Caribbean Sea area is home to exceptional biodiversity and species concentration, including some that sustain fisheries production and ecotourism. The protected area forms a marine biological corridor that seeks to ensure the conservation of environments of high physical and biological particularity associated with the deep sea system of seamounts of the Beata Ridge.
“Colombia and the Dominican Republic, through this joint declaration, send a strong message that evidences the commitment to climate action of the most biodiverse region in the world. We are taking action. It is time for everyone to unite,” President Abinader stated in his closing remarks.
President Ivan Duque of Colombia stated: “The Beata mountain range is an underwater mountain range with thousands and thousands of species. Today it allows us to say that we are elevating it to an unprecedented international status in bilateral agreements.”
He added that both Colombia and the Dominican Republic, with the signing of this agreement, mark a historic milestone in regional environmental policy and a new step in bilateral relations between the two nations.
He also called on the environmental leaders of Latin America to join this voice of environmental unity “so that science and research will allow us to go deeper through cartographic and geographic surveys, joint biology and analysis of the endemic species of this mountain range.”
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Presidency
27 July 2022