Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The Dominican Republic, with its 48,700 km©- harbors the most diverse
habitats of the Caribbean Islands, with an extremely rich, highly endemic
and also highly threatened biodiversity. It contributes in a very important
manner to place the Caribbean Islands among the five most important global
biodiversity hotspots. Since 1974, and through the years, an important
process to establish a comprehensive system of protected areas started,
reaching at present almost a full coverage of most important and critical
ecosystems, encompassing 16.2 % of the land area of the country.

Along these years, the Dominican institutional and legal framework have
evolved until a General Framework Environmental Law (Law 64-00) was
promulgated in 2000, reforming and modernizing the environmental sector and
creating the Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources. The new Law
(64-00) mandates for the development of other environmentally related laws,
including a new Protected Areas Law. The Ministry of Environment produced
the Proposal for Sectorial Protected Areas Law submitted to the National
Congress in August 2002. This proposed law included certain changes and
revisions in the Dominican Protected Areas System, within the general vision
of the existing system.

On April 13, 2004, the Dominican Senate read and approved the Proposed
Protected Areas Law with significant changes that drastically and
unsustainably would reduced the Dominican System of Protected Areas, reached
through the hard work of many individuals and institutions along the last 30
years. At present, the proposed Law has to be approved by the deputies and
promulgated by the President of the Republic, to become a Law.

The drastic reduction, almost destruction, of the protected areas system is
supposed to be based in the need to fight poverty and locally develop the
lands where the protected areas are reduced or eliminated. In fact, it
clearly takes off all areas considered of potential interest for intensive
beach/costal tourism and/or mining development. Besides destroying the
protected areas, there are strong evidences that the so called ³development
initiatives² seek by this proposal, do not have a strong support, neither
includes provisions for proper inclusion of locals into the much needed and
desired development.
Among other things, the proposed law takes off all the costal areas of
Jaragua and Parque del Este National Parks. Jaragua, included in the first
Biosphere Reserve of the Dominican Republic, justly approved at the end of
2002, within this present administration. Globally, regional insular and
national resources are at risk with this initiative. Globally important
sites for endangered and critically endangered ecosystems and species would
disappear. These include coastal wetlands, Important Bird Areas, globally
significant sites for the critically endangered hawksbill turtle
(Eretmochelys imbricata), West Indian Manatte (Trichechus manatus) and rock
iguanas (Cyclura ricordi and Cyclura cornuta) among many others.

WE URGENTALY SEEK THE SUPPORT OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY.

SEND LETTERS OF CONCERN TO:

Periódico El Caribe: direccionweb@elcaribe.com.do and
redaccionweb@elcaribe.com.do
Periódico Listín diario: listin.redacc@codetel.net.do

PLEASE CONTACT:

Yvonne Arias, Grupo Jaragua jaragua@tricom.net
Rosa Lamelas, Consorcio Ambiental Dominicano cad@verizon.net.do

Joel,
Can you give us a boiler plate format for what a message to these people should include and look like ?
Thanks.

.

Below is the text version of Sixto¹s document requesting international
support to preserve the protected areas in the Dominican Republic. If
response is to be effective each person who receives this copy should:

1. Compose a brief email addressed to all Dominican Republic contacts listed
below. (sample text provided*)
2. Distribute this request to anyone remotely concerned about ecosystems or
species ­and- network with prominent individuals, leaders, organizations,
societies, etc. with a large audience base to expand wide-spread circulation
of this support request.

Letters of support generated by leaders, organizations and societies are
important but generating mass response is of equal importance to demonstrate
this is truly a global concern.

Thank you for your support and to all that respond to this urgent request!

John Binns

- - - - - - - -

*Sample Text:

To whom it may concern:

We were dismayed to hear about the newly proposed Protected Areas Law passed
by the Dominican Senate. That proposal would open valuable protected areas
to development, primarily for the tourist industry. The Caribbean has plenty
of resorts and tourist beaches. What makes the Dominican Republic unique is
the abundance of natural areas replete with wildlife. Not only are these
areas important for preserving what may be the most important remaining
refuges for West Indian biodiversity in existence anywhere in the region,
they attract researchers and tourists eager to study and experience biotic
communities before they disappear forever. We implore the President and the
Chamber of Deputies not to approve this short-sighted and severely flawed
legislation.

If the beaches of currently protected national parks like del Este and
Jaragua are developed into areas such as those that already exist along the
northern coast from Puerto Plata to Samaná, from the area around Punta Cana,
and all along the southern coast from Sto. Domingo to La Romana, the nation
will gain little more than it already has ? especially since any new
development is much more likely to enrich European or North American
companies than to ease the poverty facing many Dominicans. However, the
nation will lose what little remains of its irreplaceable biodiversity.

Instead of destroying natural areas by building more resorts and enriching
non-Dominican business interests, concerns for poverty would be much more
effectively addressed if local agencies and institutions would appeal to the
interests of tourists in historically and naturally interesting areas by
developing non-exploitive, minimal impact opportunities for them to
experience the natural beauty of the nation¹s national parks. Millions of
tourists spend untold dollars to visit national parks in the United States.
A large portion of the tourism industry in Costa Rica is geared to visitors
wanting to experience that nation¹s natural treasures.

Although many tourists visit the Dominican Republic only to sit in the sun
on its many beautiful beaches, those needs are being met already by the many
resorts in existence. Please don¹t let short-term interests prevail. In the
long run, the needs of poverty-stricken Dominicans won¹t be met and the
nation¹s natural areas will be lost. For the sake of the nation, its proud
heritage, its economic needs, and its irretrievable natural wonders, don¹t
let this short-sighted legislation become the law of the land.

The letters of concern go to:

Periódico El Caribe: direccionweb@elcaribe.com.do and
redaccionweb@elcaribe.com.do
Periódico Listín diario: listin.redacc@codetel.net.do

Is there a specific contact at each of these newspapers that we should address the email to ? Or is :To whom it may concern sufficient ?

Do we have email addresses and names for the Chamber of Deputies ?

The below contacts are for financial donations ?

Yvonne Arias, Grupo Jaragua jaragua@tricom.net
Rosa Lamelas, Consorcio Ambiental Dominicano cad@verizon.net.do

An altered version of your sample text has been prepared, with your guidance it will be emailed off.
Thanks.

here is what I got from John this morning, he is working on getting more specific names and adresses

"To whom it may concern" will always work for now and when new contact
information is received, the original reply can be sent again.

Yvonne and Rosa are heading up the program in the DR, currently camped out
at the Government offices. Copying them is not a bad idea to assist in
building their support database.

Important: email to the DR can at times be problematic or the recipients
email capacity may be temporally at it's limit. People responding should be
relentless in their efforts until there is no bounce back.

For financial support (if people want a U.S. tax deduction for their
donation), the only option is the International Reptile Conservation
Foundation (IRCF), a 501 C(3) not for profit California corporation.
The IRCF transfers the full sum of the donation less the cost of
international money transfer and a small administrative overhead charge.

Checks can be sent to the address below or Sandy can be contacted via email
to accept bank cards now (we intend on setting up a special on-line account
shortly). Important items about checks: The check should be made out to
"IRCF" and identified on the check "Apply only to Cornuta/Ricord Support
Efforts".

As funds are collected, they will be transferred to the appropriate
individual in the Dominican Republic spearheading the campaign.
Donations can go a long way in the Dominican Republic, every penny helps.

In any case, email response is vitally important.

John Binns
International Reptile Conservation Foundation (IRCF)
3010 Magnum Drive
San Jose, CA 95135

Sandy's email: sandy@cyclura.com

Importantly, here are the contact addresses for DR support. People should
resend their responses to everyone on this list:

Defensa Areas Diercciones a Copiar

Press
---------

yacine@YACINE.NET,
listin.redacc@codetel.net.do
redaccionweb@elcaribe.com.do
dompress@hotmail.com

Dominican Congressmen
-----------

andres.bautista@senado.gov.do
angel.d.perez@senado.gov.do
a.garcia@senado.gov.do
bernardo.aleman.r@senado.gov.do
c.gomez@senado.gov.do
c.diaz.filpo@senado.gov.do
cesar.matias@senado.gov.do
c.rutinel@senado.gov.do
dago@senado.gov.do
e.seijas@senado.gov.do
e.reyes@senado.gov.do
tony.del.villar@senado.gov.do
f.lopez@senado.gov.do
jesus.vasquez@senado.gov.do
j.santos@senado.gov.do
jose.e.hazim@senado.gov.do
j.perez@senado.gov.do
j.morales@senado.gov.do
julio.gonzalezb@senado.gov.do
m.ramirez@senado.gov.do
m.torres@senado.gov.do
m.salvador@senado.gov.do
pedro.luna@senado.gov.do
p.alegria@senado.gov.do
ramiro.espino@senado.gov.do
r.alburquerque@senado.gov.do
s.munoz@senado.gov.do
vicente.c@senado.gov.do
t.duran@senado.gov.do
v.mendez@senado.gov.do

Direct Assistant to Minister of Environment DR
-----------
b.lora@codetel.net.do

Thanks for all the info. A shorter version of John's letter of
concern was put togather and emailed to all of the addresses.
With a little cut and paste, it was pretty easy to do. Hopefully
it will not fall on death ears.

No post