Environment intensifies offensive against “Mafia de Las Dunas”

Commitment. The Minister of the Environment guaranteed that from now on there will be no more extraction of materials in the Las Dunas natural monument and he will be the guardian of all the protected areas of the country.

Baní, Peravia, DR
The Minister of Environment Orlando Jorge Mera visited the natural monument Las Dunas de Las Calderas for the third time and assured that his presence in the area marks a before and after.

The reason is that on this occasion, the Minister and his team began to take definitive measures to further protect the natural monument with the installation of guardhouses or sentry boxes to control access to the sand extraction points detected in the recent Operation Las Dunas.

“For years, mafias have commercialized illegal sand from the protected area Las Dunas de Las Calderas, in Baní. In this administration, we have decided to put an end to this and bring to justice the criminals who affect the environment. There will be no environmental impunity”, said the official before several media.

The Minister reported that he inspected the areas affected by the so-called ‘Sand Mafia,’ which is illegally exploiting not only Las Dunas (unique in the Caribbean region and Central America), but also the beach of Paya, in the east of Baní, and the rivers of the province.

Another visit
The official also visited the Luis Quinn National Park, in El Manaclar (north of Baní), which was affected by a forest fire for almost a week, and there he made a commitment with its administrator, Marleni Núñez, to provide more resources to the park rangers so that they can effectively protect the area.

He pledged to create a forest fire department in the municipality of Baní.

After he visited the national park, Jorge Mera went to the community of Los Yaguarizos, in the La Montería section, where he held a meeting with community members and agricultural producers of the area andf El Manaclar and El Recodo.

“I had a pending debt to come here not only because of the beauty of the Luis Quinn Park, but also because in the last few weeks we have taken action against situations that have been going on for many years without taking the corrective measures that correspond, which is to apply Law 64-00 in the province of Peravia,” he said.

Félix Peguero, a political, community, and business leader from Banilejo, thanked the Minister for his visit, especially for having fulfilled his promise to visit El Manaclar.

In this meeting, they again requested that the Ministry of the Environment permit them to create roads to transport their agricultural products and enforce Law 64-00 in the whole area. The Minister promised to study the request for the environmental permits and give them an answer as soon as possible, after consulting the technicians of this portfolio.

On his side, Juan Tejeda, president of the Tourism and Production Cluster of Baní, took advantage of the moment to remind the Minister of the Co-Management Plan for Las Dunas,, which the Cluster has proposed to the ministry and which is still in the study phase, and which, according to him, could help to avoid the incursion of the predators to this essential natural resource.