Slash and burn agriculture and deforestation practices have resulted in major deforestation affecting a major protected area in the southwest. The locally-based Grupo Jaragua, the Vermont Center for Ecostudies and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that have been involved in research into the area as a major habitat for birds that migrate from the Dominican Republic to mountains in the northeastern US are calling attention to the national and global implications of the depredation.
Both VCE and the Cornell Lab have launched a worldwide campaign to get the word out on what is happening in the Sierra de Bahoruco, the centerpiece of UNESCO’s Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve in the southwestern Dominican Republic. “We are trying to get the word out about this disastrous situation, in hopes of catalyzing action,” says Vermont conservationist Chris Rimmer. The rugged and remote mountain area has some of the island’s most impressive biodiversity and hosts nearly all of Hispaniola’s 31 endemic bird species.
Conservation experts at Grupo Jaragua have documented rampant illegal clearing and burning of cloud forests on Bahoruco’s southern slopes, well within limits of the protected national park boundaries.
Rimmer says that while conducting Bicknell’s Thrush surveys this past winter, long-time VCE associates Esteban Garrido and Jesus Almonte watched in alarm as the forests where they were finding thrushes disappeared before their eyes. Follow-up surveys revealed accelerating forest loss. Some areas had been planted with potatoes, avocado, beets, carrots, and beans. On others, cows grazed and makeshift ovens converted felled trees into charcoal.
The conservationists have already met with the Ministry of Environment that has the responsibility for enforcing protected areas regulations and they are appealing to UNESCO to bring whatever resources it can to curb this untenable situation.
Grupo Jaragua has launched a ‘Friends of the Sierra de Bahoruco’ Facebook Page for anyone wishing to keep abreast of developments (link below, please “like” this page). Grupo Jaragua also plans to raise funds to conduct a thorough land tenure study as a way of informing and guiding effective conservation programs in the area.
www.facebook.com/SalvemosLaSierraDeBahoruco
Other links for following this conservation initiative are:
http://vtecostudies.blogspot.com/2013/04/key-bicknells-thrush-habitat-in.html
http://bit.ly/13mK5fC