The Ministry of Environment rejected the decision of the deputies and senators
to reduce the protected-area status of park lands, explaining that the
mutilation would have serious economic consequences that would affect the
production of food in the Dominican Republic. Hoy newspaper carries more details
today of the letter sent by the ministry to Congress that disputed the proposed
changes. The environmental authorities indicated that the protected areas cover
the main water generation systems that the country needs to sustain its food
chain, because without the rivers and aquiferous systems located within the
national parks, irrigation of many farmlands would not be possible.
Furthermore, the Ministry of Environment stated that the generation of
hydroelectricity depends on the water that is produced within the parks,
highlighting its importance to national production because of its negligible
costs.
The ministry emphasized that the protection and conservation of the protected
areas of any country serves much more than the value of contemplating pleasing
natural scenery. ?The bill leaves behind the old concept of protecting natural
areas for their esthetic or panoramic values only. The function of this law is
fundamentally economical and ecological,? states the ministry in its defense of
the original bill sent to Congress in 2002. The letter to President Hipolito
Mejia introducing the bill highlighted that the different protection categories
assigned to each protected area seek to give them more value according to their
individual capacities to protect biodiversity and maintain environmental
services and potential for the economic use of those services, in a sustainable
manner. The original bill?s motive was to become an instrument for sustainable
development in the country.
On 20 August 2002, the Executive Branch sent Congress the original bill received
from the Ministry of Environment that established the protection of 30% of the
national territory. The Senate last month reduced these areas to 15%, and sent
it to the Chamber of Deputies for approval. The Chamber of Deputies has approved
a first reading of the bill.
During the hearing yesterday at the Chamber of Deputies, the ministry?s director
of protected areas, Roberto Sanchez, stated that the shrinking of the areas is
irrational and contradictory ? and full of technical deficiencies. As reported
in El Caribe, Richard Ramirez, the ministry?s director of mapping, said that the
modifications include serious geographical and mapping errors. ?I think those
who made this bill were either drunk or mad,? he stated when interviewed during
the public hearings at Congress yesterday.