Dominican protected highlands again under threat

Santo Domingo.- It is Sunday morning and the agricultural activity in the Las Espinas area, within the Valle Nuevo National Park, does not stop.

Clouds collide with the cloud forest a little higher up, while irrigation pipes wet acres of onions right where the Nizao and Las Cuevas rivers are born, the latter then forming the Yaque del Norte. Darío Iginio is a farmer in the area of ​​Las Espinas, more than 5 kilometers within the southern limit of the park, where he mainly grows onions and other short-cycle crops.

He approaches to speak with Diario Libre and tells how agriculture in the area has been replaced by avocado trees in the last 3 years.

In September 2016, the then Minister of the Environment, Francisco Dominguez Brito, issued Resolution 14-2016 as part of the Valle Nuevo National Park rescue plan.

Diario Libre reports that the resolution followed the recommendations of the Co-management Council to which the Moscoso Puello Foundation, Propagas Foundation, Prof. Eugenio de Jesús Marcano National Museum of National History, The Nature Conservancy Association, and the Dr. Rafael Moscoso Puello Botanical Garden.

Also the Association for the Development of San José de Ocoa, the Environmental Council of Constanza, the Federation of Peasants Towards Progress, the Sur Futuro Foundation, the Ministry of the Environment and Mr. Rafael Collado, as representative of the community of the municipality of Constanza, La Vega province.