A report by an environmentalist at the Academy of Sciences and the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), Luis Carvajal, says that the environmental degradation in the Constanza mountain and valley region shows that the authorities are failing to apply the rules and regulations for agricultural activities and special permits are still being granted to influential persons.
Environment Minister Bautista Rojas Gomez said that they have an integrated strategic vision that allows them to solve the problem of water and land use in the municipalities of Jarabacoa and Constanza, in La Vega province.
Carvajal criticized the Ministry authorities, saying that while they are very strict in some areas, they are turn a blind eye when it comes to the activities of high-level politicians and government employees within protected areas. He said the problem in Constanza was not extreme poverty but extreme wealth and the power that the rich used to enable them to do whatever they wished to the environment.
In response, the Minister agreed that the problems existed but said that the environmental authorities had never been inactive when faced with an abuse of power. Rojas Gomez stressed that the Ministry had imposed penalties on anyone found violating environmental regulations. He concluded by saying no one was above the law.
