Environment Ministry and 31 Enriquillo Organizations Agree to Defend Protected Areas

Some 31 environmental organizations from the four provinces of the Enriquillo region along with the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARENA) signed the Jimaní Declaration, a 9-point agreement to protect the region´s environment and to make sustainable use of the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve.

The declaration is the result of the workshop entitled “Ecological Societies of the Municipalities of Barahona, Pedernales, Bahoruco and Independencia Provinces,”..

The declaration is the result of the workshop entitled “Ecological Societies of the Municipalities of Barahona, Pedernales, Bahoruco and Independencia Provinces,” headed by Environment and Natural Resources Minister Jaime David Fernández Mirabal who presented SEMARENA´s main policies and strategies for the region. He called on organizations to coordinate their community actions to protect and carefully use the area´s natural resources. 

Throughout the activity, the work groups reached consensus on the main proposals put forward which call for shared and coordinated responses to the area´s environmental issues.

Along with Fernández Mirabal, other individuals and environmental groups participated in the event including Eleuterio Martinez, Deputy Secretary for Protected Areas and Biodiversity;  Martha Pérez, Deputy Secretary of the Jimaní Ecological Society; Miguel Melo Beltré, Provincial Director of SEMARENA in Barahona and Regional Coordinator; Héctor Garibaldis Pérez, Provincial Director of SEMARENA in Independencia as well as the Director of the Cross-Border Environmental Project (PMT), among other leaders of environmental organizations and civil society who signed the agreement.

JIMANÍ DECLARATION

Ecological and environmental organizations of the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve, gathered in the city of Jimaní on Saturday December 13, 2008, consider that we have a responsibility to contribute to the improvement of quality and living conditions of the Dominican people, and therefore wish to express the following:

• Reiterate our commitment to defend life
  
• Assume the tasks of strengthening local communities and organizations in defense of the environment and to make rational use of natural resources
  
• Promote all initiatives to protect the health of the environment and the rational use of natural resources in the territory of the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve
  
• Call on the Government, National Congress and Judicial branch to punish those sectors that threaten the environment and natural forestry resources.
  
• Reject all intents from anti-national sectors to turn the country´s national resources into private property, especially protected areas.  
  
• Condemn the criminal acts of arson that occur every year in our forest reserves, protected areas and natural monuments
  
• Support all efforts to regulate the companies that extract building materials from rivers, creeks and other tributaries, known as granceras, whose practice is not sustainable; such a case occurred in the preservation of Los Haitises National Park
  
• Require major participation on the part of local governments and town halls in the formulation and application of environmental and natural resources protection policies
  
• Solicit international collaboration through major investment in cooperation projects
  
• Promote major initiatives to generate added value to natural resources, especially in the area of ecotourism and local markets
  
• Call on all of the country´s social organizations and government institutions to promote a national movement of organizations in favor of the environment and to create a citizens network of environmental protection

LIST OF SIGNATORIES:

1. Federation of Producers from Bosque Seco del Sur (FEPROBOSUR)
   
2. Pedernales Ecological Society
   
3. El Carpintero Environmental Club
   
4. Foundation for the Development and Protection of the Nizaíto River (FUNDEPROCUNIPA)
   
5. La Descubierta Ecological Society
   
6. Paraíso Ecological Society
   
7. Provincial Office of the Youth Ministry
   
8. Jaragua Group
   
9. World Vision
   
10. Sustainable Tourism Cluster of Pedernales
    
11. Jimaní Ecological Society
    
12. Municipal Town Hall of Mella
    
13. San Rafael Ecological Society
    
14. Catholic Tech University of Barahona (UCATEBA)
    
15. Cabral Ecological Society
    
16. Cattle Ranchers Association of Jimaní
    
17. Peasant Promotion Center of LEMBA
    
18. Local Ecotourism Initiative Committee (CIELO-Duvergé)
    
19. Foundation for the Development of Pedernales (FUDNACIPE)
    
20. Foundation for the Development of Sur (FUDNASUR)
    
21. Progressive Environmental Movement of Barahona
    
22. Vicente Noble Ecological Society
    
23. Research and Popular Education Center (CIEPO)
    
24. Dominican Federation of Ecological Associations (FEDOMASEC)
    
25. INDECO
    
26. Ornithological Society of La Hispaniola (SOH)
    
27. Barahona Ecological Society
    
28. Las Damas Ecological Society
    
29. Coffee Producers and Growers of Arroyo Blanco
    
30. Coordinated Unit of the Jaragua-Bahoruco-Enriquillo Biosphere Reserve
    
31. Alliance for the Sustainable Development of the Province of Barahona