Dominican Republic protects 31 areas to conserve coral

From a news release posted by The Nature Conservancy:

Dominican Republic, Caribbean — On the heels of a recent declaration expanding and establishing new land and sea parks in The Bahamas, The Nature Conservancy applauds a recent Presidential decree in the Dominican Republic, which will add 31 new protected areas into its national protected areas system. The new protected areas encompass a total of 1,321,024 hectares—just over 3.2 million acres—of terrestrial and marine habitat.

The decree acknowledged the need to reinforce the Dominican Republic’s existing National System of Protected Areas, particularly in near shore marine diversity. Of the new protected areas, 217,455 hectares—approximately 537,343 acres - is terrestrial habitat. The remaining 1,103,569 hectares—approximately 2.7 million acres—spans marine environments.

During the announcement, Jaime David Fernández Mirabal, Secretary of State for Environment and Natural Resources in the Dominican Republic, thanked The Nature Conservancy for conducting the biological gap analysis that served as the scientific basis for the decision on at least 22 of the 31 new protected areas. . . .

Because less than 7 percent of the islands and waters here are protected and managed to ensure their future survival, the coral reefs, beaches, rivers, mountains, forests and fisheries that are the foundation of all life in the Caribbean are increasingly at risk.

The Caribbean Challenge, which represents the largest coordinated, multi-national conservation campaign in the region, is no small undertaking. The Nature Conservancy has pledged $20 million in private funding to help leverage another $20 million in public financial commitments. The goal of the Challenge is to permanently establish a network of 20 million acres of marine parks across the territorial waters of at least 10 countries, and also to ensure that once established, the protected areas also receive sufficient, permanent funding through sustainable financing tools.

The Dominican Republic was one of the first nations to reach its goal of protecting 20 percent of its marine habitat when it declared the country’s largest Marine Protected Area with the National Whale Sanctuary.