location: Dominican Republic

location: Dominican Republic

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Activists win reprieve, for now, for Dominican coastline eyed by developers
- A Spanish hotel developer plans to build a new resort on protected coastal land in the Dominican Republic.
- Opposition by environmentalists prompted the government to order a temporary halt to the project in February pending the outcome of an assessment due later in March.
- Environmentalists say they fear that allowing the resort development to go ahead in what was once part of Cotubanamá National Park could open the door to more developments along the pristine beachfront.
- With elections due in May, one of the presidential candidates has backed the opposition and called for the dismissal of the environment minister for permitting the project in the first place.

Central American countries pledge to protect Mesoamerica’s ‘5 Great Forests’
- The governments of all eight members of the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD) — Belize, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama — presented an ambitious regional climate action plan at COP25.
- Among the objectives of the 5 Great Forests Initiative is ending all illegal cattle ranching within the forests; ensuring that no wildlife species in the great forests goes extinct; protecting 10 million hectares (nearly 25 million acres) of land; and restoring 500,000 hectares of forest.
- The initiative also aims to improve the livelihoods of forest-dependent peoples, especially members of indigenous and local communities within the five forests, whose leadership is seen as crucial to forest conservation efforts.

Cities may save some species from extinction, but they don’t save species’ ecological functions
- Some species are not only able to adapt to life in urban areas but actually thrive and grow more abundant than they might have in their natural surroundings.
- Thus some cities have been declared urban conservation hotspots — but research published last year shows that while those cities might help preserve robust populations of otherwise threatened species, they do not help preserve the crucial ecological functions of those species.
- If species and the ecological functions they provide are allowed to disappear altogether from natural habitats and only continue to persist in urban areas, that could have “long-term, unexpected effects on ecosystems,” researchers say.

Women in small-island states exposed to high levels of mercury: study
- Tests of hair samples from hundreds of women in small-island countries and territories found 75 percent had mercury levels high enough to cause fetal neurological damage.
- Nearly 60 percent of the women had mercury levels exceeding a threshold beyond which brain damage, IQ loss, and kidney and cardiovascular damage can occur.
- The report attributed the mercury pollution in fisheries in these regions to air emissions of the toxic heavy metal emanating from coal-fired power plants and artisanal gold mining.
- The researchers have called for a complete ban on the trade in and use of mercury, and urged a transition away from coal power to renewables.

Bold initiative aims to protect coral reefs in the Dominican Republic
- Coral reefs of the northern Caribbean have undergone widespread change over the past century, driven by coastal development, pollution, over-fishing, the introduction of invasive species, and increasing ocean temperatures.
- A new and unique marine protected area, the Southeast Marine Sanctuary, has recently been declared, covering 786,300 hectares of reef environment, thus making it one of the largest protected areas in the Caribbean.
- The marine sanctuary will be divided into two zones, each to be co-managed by a diverse group of stakeholders organized into a nonprofit. The structure of its oversight – a collaboration among numerous stakeholders, from the federal government to local fishermen and from environmental groups to hotel associations – makes this new marine sanctuary remarkable.

Super plane, satellites help map the Caribbean’s hidden coral reefs
- Satellites, aircraft and scuba divers are creating the first ever high-resolution map of coral reefs throughout the Caribbean region.
- Layers of data with 10-centimeter (4-inch) resolution will reveal the extent of damage from recent hurricanes and identify pockets of living coral to protect, as well as ailing coral that can be restored.
- The maps will be used to declare new marine protected areas, guide management plans and select areas for post-hurricane restoration.

New lizard found in Dominican Republic is already at risk
- The new lizard is a Greater Antillean anole named Anolis landestoyi after Miguel Landestoy, the naturalist who first spotted and photographed the species.
- Scientists previously believed there were no other species like the Cuban anoles from the Chamaeleolis group living on other Greater Antillean islands — that is, until Anolis landestoyi was discovered.
- Anolis landestoyi is already threatened, as the species is restricted to a unique habitat in a small area of western Dominican Republic that is being decimated by illegal deforestation.

Gov’t officials permitted deforestation in Dominican Republic national park

Forest inside a Dominican Republic national park burned to clear land for crops. Photo by Miguel Landestoy. One makes whimsical clicking and whistling noises, while the other communicates in quiet, bird-like chirps. The first is one of the planet’s only venomous mammals, the Hispaniolan solenodon (Solenodon paradoxus), while the second is Cuvier’s hutia (Plagiodontia aedium), […]
Local knowledge sheds light on some of the world’s strangest mammals

One of the difficulties of studying rare and endangered species is that they are, by definition, hard to find. Scientists attempting to understand their distributions and the threats to their survival can spend hundreds of hours in the field while collecting little data, simply because sightings are so few and far between. To find out […]
Not all mangroves are created equal: new map reveals carbon storage hot-spots

Mangrove forests are one of the most important weapons in the fight against climate change. Not only do they directly store huge amounts of carbon, but they actively capture additional carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and sequester it in their soils. When mangroves are destroyed, huge quantities of carbon are released into the atmosphere, significantly […]
Meeting the mammal that survived the dinosaurs

The female Hispaniolan solenodon caught by Nicolas Corona in the Dominican Republic. She’s awaiting being fitted with a radio collar. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. So, here I am, running in a forest at night over 2,000 miles from home. This forest—dry, stout, and thorny enough to draw blood—lies just a few miles north of a […]
Dominican Republic sends bulldozers to destroy wildlife reserve, home to endangered species

Last Wednesday, bulldozers entered the Loma Charco Azul Biological Reserve (LCABR) in the Dominican Republic and began clearing vegetation for agricultural development. The move stunned local conservationists who had not been notified ahead of time of the project. Although Charco Azul Biological Reserve is home to a wealth of threatened species—including the world’s largest population […]
The hidden Caribbean: sustainable tourism arrives in the Dominican Republic

The crystal-clear waters of Cayo Arena in the Dominican Republic. Photo by: Tiffany Roufs. Finding true ecotourism companies isn’t easy. While the tourism industry worldwide has latched onto the term ‘ecotourism,’ in many cases it’s more propaganda than reality. Especially in heavily-touristed areas—like the Caribbean Islands—it’s difficult to find efforts that are actually low impact, […]
First strike: nearly 200 illegal loggers arrested in massive sting across 12 countries

One-hundred-and-ninety-seven illegal loggers across a dozen Central and South American countries have been arrested during INTERPOL’s first strike against widespread forestry crime. INTERPOL, or The International Criminal Police Organization, worked with local police forces to take a first crack at illegal logging. In all the effort, known as Operation Lead, resulted in the seizure of […]
Beyond the resorts: traveling the real and wild Dominican Republic (photos)

Rainforest-covered karst mountains with pristine mangroves beneath characterizes one of the most stunning protected areas in the Caribbean: Los Haitises National Park. Photo by: Jeremy Hance. For its stunning variety of ecosystems, the Dominican Republic is like a continent squished into half an island. Lowland rainforests, cloud forests, pine forests, dry forests, mangroves, savannah, coastal […]
Dry forests disappearing faster than rainforests in Latin America

Latin American countries lose 4% of dry forests in 9 years Click image to enlarge Countries across Latin America lost 78,000 square kilometers of subtropical and tropical dry broadleaf forests between 2001 and 2010, according to a new satellite-based assessment [PDF] published in the journal Biotropica. The research — based on analysis of data from […]
Featured video: the Caribbean’s last mammals
Although they are little-known, the hutia and solenodon are some of the last surviving mammals of the Caribbean. A hefty rodent, the hutia spends its time grazing in trees like a giant arboreal hamster. While, the solenodon may be one of the world’s oddest creatures: a ‘living fossil’, the solenodon’s evolutionary origins goes back all […]
The Caribbean’s wonderfully weird (and threatened) mammals, an interview with Jose Nunez-Mino

Not many people know the solenodon and the hutia, yet for the fortunate few that have encountered them, these strange little-studied mammals—just barely holding on in the Caribbean island of Hispaniola—deserve to be stars of the animal kingdom. “I could not quite believe it the first time I held a solenodon; I was in utter […]
Cement mining puts Dominican Republic park at risk
A cement mine, granted under questionable circumstances, is putting one the Caribbean’s most important forest parks at risk, warns a group of NGOs and attorneys working to stop the project. Work on the mine, which lies in the forested buffer zone of Dominican Republic’s Los Haitises National Park, was temporarily suspended by court order earlier […]
New species of glowing mushrooms named after Mozart’s Requiem

Classical musical genius, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, probably never expected his music to inspire mycologists, but fungi researchers have announced in the journal Mycologia that two new species of glowing mushroom are named after movements in the composer’s Requiem: Mycena luxaeterna (eternal light) and Mycena luxperpetua (perpetual light). The glowing fungi species—seven in total—were discovered in […]
Avoided deforestation could send $38 billion to third world under global warming pact

Avoided deforestation help fight third world under global warming pact Avoided deforestation could help fight third world poverty under global warming pact $43 billion could flow into developing countries Rhett Butler, mongabay.com October 31, 2006 An avoided deforestation strategy for mitigating climate change could mean billions for world’s poorest countries while preserving biodiversity and ecosystem […]
Rainforests worth $1.1 trillion for carbon alone in Coalition nations

Rainforests worth $1.1 trillion for carbon alone in “Coalition” nations Rainforests worth $1.1 trillion for carbon alone in “Coalition” nations Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com November 29, 2005 [2006 update] If a coalition of developing countries has its way, there could soon be new forests sprouting up in tropical regions. The group of ten countries, led […]

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