Message: 6 Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 23:30:18 -0300 From: "Sally Tully-Figueroa" <stfpare@prw.net> Subject: Fw: ACTION ALERT - Dominican Republic
----- Original Message ----- From: ECOTERRA Intl. To: undisclosed-recipients: Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 9:35 PM Subject: ACTION ALERT - Dominican Republic
ACTION ALERT - PROTECT THE MARINE NATIONAL PARK !
While the Manati Park Dolphins are still kept in slavery (see: http://www.ecop.info/english/e-actions.htm) at a facility, which illegaly is supported by funds of the European Development Bank, a new environmental scandal rocks the Dominican Republic.
The environmental consortium of the Dominican Republic calls to support all those organizations, who fight at the Supreme Court of Justice to declare as unconstitutional and nullify the Sectoral Protected Areas Law, recently enacted by President Hipolito Mejialaw.
If that law would persist Globalia /Air Europa chief executive Juan Jose Hidalgo could go ahead with the construction of a large resort inside the National Park of the East, the famous Marine National Park in the Dominican Republic.
The National Hotel and Restaurant Association(Asonahores) rejects any development of preserved park area in the view that to sever a part of the park would set a dangerous precedent for the destruction of other parks that were so far safeguarded under the Environmental Law. The ruling governance of the Dominican Republic continues to be in bed with exploitative entrepreneurs from Spain in typical neo-clonial fashion.
Please support the Hotel- and Tourism- as well as the Environmental Organizations (see the Background info below) to have that law nullified by sending your letters and mails of protest as well as signature lists until 09th August 2004 to:
Calle Juan Tomas Diaz esq. Modesto Diaz, Edif. Chagon II, apto. 203, Zona Universitaria, Sto. Dgo., Rep. Dom.
or via e-mail through Karla Nova <karla_nova@hotmail.com>
Just declare that you support the nullification of the Sectoral Protected Areas Law and that no construction must be allowed inside any marine national park of the Dominican Republic.
And also declare your disgust to Juan Jose Hidalgo: To: Juan Jose Hidalgo via: Herrero Camacho Victor Globalia Corporacion Empresarial S.A. Globalia Sistemas, S.L. Complejo Globalia. Crta Arenal Llucmajor Llucmajor / PALMA DE MALLORCA E-07620 BALEARES - SPAIN Phone: +34.71178252 Fax: +34.71178276 e-mail: vherrero@globalia-sistemas.com
And tell him that you would boycott Air Europe as well as any of his tourism facilities, if he goes ahead with his destructive plans.
Thanks for your support !
ECOTERRA Intl. SAmericaNode
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BACKGROUND info: (automated translations)
DR1.com Daily News - Tuesday, 03 August 2004 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Protests over dismemberment of parks Eleven environmental and hotel organizations will claim that the new Sectoral Protected Areas bill, signed into law on 30 July by President Hipolito Mejia, violates the Constitution, as reported in Diario Libre. The organizations are seeking to convince the Supreme Court of Justice to annul the law. The institutions protesting the law are the National Hotel & Restaurant Association, Association of Hotels of La Romana and Bayahibe, Consorcio Ambiental Dominicano, Grupo Ecologista Tinglar, Fundacion Msocoso Puello, Juventud Nacional Comrpometida, Llerena y Asociados, Cebse, Fundemar, Ricardo Briones, Unev and hundreds of private citizens. Lawyers Julio Cesar Castanos Guzman, Leila Roldan, Juan Miguel Castillo Pantaleon, Mariano Rodriguez, Iraima Capril, Angel Castillo, Manuel Berges hijo and Lino Vasquez, among others, will file their petition before the Supreme Court. They argue that the law disbands the protected areas system in place, disregards and eliminates limits established by law in some areas and reduces the limits of others. The Academy of Sciences also has stated that the legislation is brimming with errors, as reported in Hoy newspaper yesterday.
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Hidalgo plans to build in Park of the East As reported in Diario Libre, it appears that Globalia/Air Europa chief executive Juan Jose Hidalgo plans to take advantage of the new Sectoral Protected Areas Law recently signed into law by President Hipolito Mejia. Hidalgo will reportedly go ahead with the construction of a large resort on property he purchased within the limits of the National Park of the East. When environmentalists and hotel groups questioned the legality of the real-estate transaction that was carried out with the approval of President Mejia, Hidalgo reneged and said he would not build the hotel on that land but rather on the East Coast instead. Now that President Mejia has ratified the bill to authorize construction in the area, Hidalgo appears to want to proceed after all. "It looks like the law (of protected areas) has cleared all that up and now I have even greater aspirations," said Hidalgo from Madrid, as quoted in the Diario Libre, in reference to his plans to build many hotels in the DR. Hidalgo asserted his confidence that the plot of land has been excluded from official park protection.
DR1.com Daily News - Thursday, 29 July 2004 Academy of Sciences confronts the law The Dominican Academy of Sciences has taken on the Sectoral Protected Areas Law and plans to submit the disputed legislation to the Supreme Court. The academy argues that the legislation is full of technical and legal errors, as well as violations of international agreements and conventions. The scientists say the internal contradictions and other mistakes will make the law impossible to enforce, and, because of this, they will challenge its constitutionality in the Supreme Court. El Caribe reports that the Academy of Sciences says the National Park of the East, Cabo Cambron and Jaragua were reduced to scraps in order to satisfy land titles and real estate operations of dubious origin. The scientists told El Caribe reporter Panky Corcino that the geographic absurdities are so notable, especially to do with the limits of Diego de Ocampo mountain towards Puerto Plata and the distortion of the Miguel Canela Lazaro Scientific Reserve, whose boundaries were listed many kilometers away from the area intended.
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Orig call for Action:
Concorcio Ambiental Dominicano
Antes del lunes 9 de agosto del 2004 estaran recibiendo firmas de instituciones y personas que no esten de acuerdo con la Ley Sectorial de Areas Protegidas.
Debera ser antes del Lunes ya que hay una convocatoria donde presentaran en la suprema corte el plan de accion de inconstitucionalidad interpuesta contra la ley sectorial de areas protegidas.
Las firmas pueden ser depositadas en:
Calle Juan Tomas Diaz esq. Modesto Diaz, Edif. Chagon II, apto. 203, Zona Universitaria, Sto. Dgo., Rep. Dom.
Para mas informacion llamar al 532-5857
MUCHAS GRACIAS!!!!
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