Foreign Organizations Donate Funds for Environmental Sustainability at the Pic Macaya, Haiti and Nalga de Maco National Parks

Foreign Organizations Donate Funds for Environmental Sustainability at the Pic Macaya, Haiti and Nalga de Maco National Parks
Santiago Domingo, Dominican Republic, 10/31/2013

The European Union has made ??a contribution to the project Pilot Studies and Initiatives to Promote Environmental Sustainability in the Dominican Republic and in Haiti, managed by the Associazione per il Servizio Internationale Voluntari (AVSI), Gruppo Volontariato Civile (GVC), the Center for Research and Social Studies (CIES) / Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE) / Caribbean Migrant Observatory (OBMICA), the Organization for the Rehabilitation of the Environment (ORE), and the Dominican Institute for Integral Development (IDDI).

The purpose of the project is to reduce the vulnerability of the target communities, by contributing to their preparation and rapid recovery in cases of disaster in the areas of operation, …

Mr. David Luther, Executive Director of the IDDI, a partner organization in the implementation of the project, expressed gratitude for the donations and said that this is a renewed demonstration that it is possible to combine efforts for the socio-economic development and care of the island’s natural resources.

The initiative stemmed from the concerns of the organizations involved in the earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. Such event increased the precarious situation existing in the neighboring country, encouraging migration mostly to Elias Piña, which made the means for livelihood, food, safety and natural resources more vulnerable in that area.

The purpose of the project is to reduce the vulnerability of the target communities, by contributing to their preparation and rapid recovery in cases of disaster in the areas of operation, while improving the understanding of the relationship between poverty, human health, migration, disaster management and the environment. To this end, it will use as a case study the areas surrounding the following parks: Pic Macaya, Haiti and Nalga de Maco, Dominican Republic. In the long term, this project will contribute extensively to the preparation for and prompt recovery from disasters throughout Haiti and the Dominican Republic.

In this sense, IDDI has collaborated in producing a manual of implementation for the communities surrounding those parks. This document will support the Management Plan for Dominican Parks and will be a starting point for the development of the Haitian Management Plan. Moreover, this institution will also offer workshops to train facilitators to serve as multipliers in the communities surrounding those parks.