VZCZCXYZ0000
PP RUEHWEB

DE RUEHDG #3031/01 2652033
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 222033Z SEP 06
FM AMEMBASSY SANTO DOMINGO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6185
INFO RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 0240
RUEHSJ/AMEMBASSY SAN JOSE PRIORITY 0997

UNCLAS SANTO DOMINGO 003031 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR WHA/EPSC FAITH CORNEILLE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: DR EAGR EAID ECON SENV SOCI TBIO
SUBJECT: THE MINISTRY OF ENVIRONMENT--YOUNG AND TOOTHLESS 
 
 
¶1.  Summary.  Many believed that President Fernandez would 
replace the Minister of Environment, Max Puig, at the 
mid-term point.  After many cabinet shifts, however, 
Fernandez decided to keep Puig, which is a good indicator of 
where Environment falls on Fernandez's list of 
priorities....near the bottom.  The Environment Ministry is 
young and toothless.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  In 2000, Congress passed Law 64-2000.  Drawn up with 
technical assistance from USAID, the new General Law on 
Environment was intended to change the way the Dominican 
Republic views its environment.  It provided for the creation 
of a Ministry of Environment, Municipal Environment 
Management Units (UGAMs), Institutional Environment 
Management Units, a National Environment Council, a National 
Environment Fund, and a National Environment Information 
System.  Before 2000, twenty fragmented organizations had 
dealt with environmental issues in the Dominican Republic, 
with limited success.  Law 64 was an opportunity for those 
who wanted to protect the environment, the water, the coast, 
the forests, the national parks, the air, and the future of 
the country. 
 
¶3.  Of the six major institutions to be created, only two are 
functioning today.  While the young Ministry is well staffed, 
it is not efficient and has acquired a reputation as the 
"Ministry of Paper".  Of 160 municipalities in the Dominican 
Republic, 60 have Municipal Environment Management Units 
(environmental representatives at the municipal level), but 
many of these exist only on paper.  USAID is currently 
working with 11 of the UGAMs and has plans to double that 
number over the next year. 
 
- The Institutional Environment Units consist of 
environmental representatives at each of the ministries. 
However, these positions are listed on paper only and the 
positions are currently not being filled. 
 
- The National Environment Council is supposed to be chaired 
by the Ministerof Environment and consist of ministers from 
Indstry and Commerce, Agriculture, Finance, Tourism, ublic 
Works, and Labor.  President Fernandez creaed the Council by 
decree in December 2005, in a anner so unpublicized that 
Environment Minister uig did not hear about it until late 
January.  Pig was incensed.  The council has yet to meet. 
 
 The National Environment Fund is supposed to generate 
resources from fines from those who violate environmental 
laws and from their internal budget.  This fund is for 
environmental protection and sustainable natural resource use 
purposes.  But the fund is not operational for a variety of 
reasons.  The Ministry of Environment does not have the right 
to collect fines because it has not submitted draft 
legislation on environmental enforcement.  The institution 
that does collect fines for environmental violations is the 
Environment Police, a military unit that submits those fines 
to the Ministry of Finance. 
 
- The National Environment Information System is another 
mandated program that is not operating due to a lack of 
resources.  This system is intended to interconnect all the 
Ministry's local and regional offices so as to facilitate law 
enforcement and the issuance of permits in the Dominican 
Republic.  Although USAID has provided the technical 
assistance to design the system, Minister Puig is still 
undecided about where within the ministry to place management 
responsibility.  Though the recently inaugurated Secretariat 
web portal is a step forward, the Ministry does not yet have 
the funding or the hardware needed to finish the program. 
 
¶4.  In the strictly formal sense, Law 64 is an excellent 
structure for managing the environment.  The free trade 
agreement CAFTA-DR also emphasizes the importance of the 
environment, suggesting a place for it on the 
administration's list of priorities. 
 
¶5.  Even so, many challenges and obstacles exist in the area 
of environment.  Some of those challenges are the Ministry's 
inability to implement and enforce the environmental laws and 
norms, the evident lack of political will of the Minister, 
and a lack of resources and cohesiveness within the Ministry. 
 
¶6.  The Minister's secretary says that two draft sector laws 
and many environmental regulations and norms have been on 
Puig's desk for many months.  These texts deal with 
biodiversity, coastal waters, forestry, toxic substances, and 
enforcement of the entire range of policy instruments. 
 
¶7.  As for resources, the Ministry has no labs and no field 
technical instruments to conduct environmental inspections 
and properly document and file cases of violations to the 
law.  Inspectors can't travel to the field because of 
insufficient funding and transportation facilities, so they 
cannot observe existing site conditions in order to provide 
an environmental permit or to assess environmental damage. 
This is one reason for the excessive wait to obtain an 
environmental permit for a development project or to start a 
new business in the Dominican Republic. 
 
¶8.  Many of the Ministry's staff (e.g., national park rangers 
and managers) trained in 2004 through donors' technical 
assistance programs lost their jobs when the incoming 
Fernandez administration replaced them with PLD supporters. 
 
¶9.  Puig's most vigorous effort has been to attack the staff 
of his predecessor Frank Moya Pons for issuing permits that 
allowed the importation from Puerto Rico of several shiploads 
of rockash, waste from coal-fired power plants that was to be 
used as aggregates for construction in northwestern 
Montecristi and in northeastern Samana.  The Ministry's 
Environmental Prosecutor spent a great deal of time 
instigating trials in the provinces against former Under 
Secretary of the Environment Rene Ledesma.  Puig and the 
 
SIPDIS 
ministry officials asserted that rockash was toxic, even 
though it had been tested and founded inert according to U.S. 
EPA standards. The Montecristi judge dismissed the charges; 
the Samana trial is still unresolved; and the rockash was 
carted off by CEMEX for commercial use.  The whole 
undertaking appeared to be political. 
 
¶10.  Otherwise, Puig does make announcements and at times 
defends the country's environment against poachers - - 
including, at times, against Minister Felix Jimenez of 
Tourism.  But Puig's announcements have no follow-up and no 
teeth.  With tourism pulling in 12 percent of GDP, Puig is in 
no position to insist. 
 
¶11.  This report and extensive other material can be 
consulted on our SIPRNET site, 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/santodomingo/  
 
¶12.  Drafted by Chris Davy. 
BULLEN