The Ministry of Environment celebrated the start of the International Year of Forests 2011 with a commemorative event at the Parque Mirador del Oeste yesterday. Economist Deep Ford, representative of the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization hailed the efforts made by the Dominican government to protect the forests. “It is a pleasure to work in a country that has a strong commitment to the protection of forests,” he said. Environment Minister Jaime David Fernandez Mirabal said the year provided an opportunity to push ahead the motivation: Forests for People, Forests for the Earth.<\/p>\n
“The protection of the forests is a state policy and the responsibility of all sectors, which means there is continuity of state that has enabled us to present a positive balance in the forestry coverage of our country,” he said.<\/p>\n
The Dominican Republic increased its forest coverage by 5.4% in the past seven years. National forest coverage is 33-33.5, up from 27.5% in 1996. Fernandez Mirabal attributed the increase to the Plan Nacional Quisqueya Verde, an initiative launched when he was Vice President of the Republic from 1996-2000. He was appointed Minister of Environment in August 2008.<\/p>\n
He has said in 2010 alone, 11,400,000 trees belonging to five different species were planted, namely mahogany, local pine, cedar, oak and tamarind.<\/p>\n
www.un.org\/en\/events\/iyof2011\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ministry of Environment celebrated the start of the International Year of Forests 2011 with a commemorative event at the Parque Mirador del Oeste yesterday. Economist Deep Ford, representative of the United Nations Food & Agriculture Organization hailed the efforts made by the Dominican government to protect the forests. “It is a pleasure to work … <\/p>\n