Dominican Republic Environment chief ‘connives’ with predators

Santo Domingo.- Environmentalist Luis Carvajal on Fri. blasted Environment minister Angel Estevez for “connivance” with predators of the protected areas.

He cited the depredation at Los Haitises National Park and other zones, while Deputy minister Daneris Santana assures that Environment prosecutes those who harm the forests.

Carvajal, referring to a Diario Libre report on the depredation in Los Haitises, said I’s serious, but that it’s taking place across the country because “the authorities lack a conservation policy.”

He said Environment fails to halt agriculture in protected areas, and accused its directors of complicity with those who harm the environment.

“What has never been done is that the minister himself says he will not comply with the law; it’s that the minister himself comes to the defense of the predators and accompanies them and encourages them, that’s what has never been done. We have had many bad ministers and failed environmental policies, but never at the head of the predators and if true, that it had never been done and in his case what he (Estévez) has done is to continue with what’s wrong, stopped doing what was right and do the worst thing that had ever been done,” he said.

“While the authorities make the grandiloquent announcement that they have planted over 72 million trees, there are large deforested areas in places where the forest specialized in capturing water is the guarantee for the continence of aquifers,” said the also member of the Dominican Academy of Sciences .