The free trade treaty that is currently being debated in some of the Central American countries, and which will be debated in the Dominican Congress shortly, requires the nations to preserve their environment and their forest reserves. According to the El Caribe, this will be very difficult to do when there are laws on the books that reduce the areas of protected forests and industrial contamination is evident in every river and stream. Article 17.2 of the DR-CAFTA says that the different parts accept that it is inappropriate to promote commerce or investments by weakening or reducing the protections contemplated in the internal environmental legislation. Nonetheless, last month the Supreme Court of the Dominican Republic, ratified the much-debated Sectoral Law 202-04 on Protected Areas, which, according to the Ministry of the Environment, the Academy of Science and international organizations, hands over a valuable part of the natural reserves to tourism investors. According to Hugo Rivera, a coordinator for the Coalition for Support of the FTA, there will be economic sanctions for those countries that reduce their protected area. The El Caribe pointed out that the Ministry of the Environment currently has no business or industry under indictment for infractions of Law 64-00.