Tropicalia Foundation president William R. Phelan took the oath from Network president Julio V. Brache and other partners in the Santo Domingo offices of RENAEPA, a prestigious grouping of important local and international companies, whose objective is the defense and protection of Dominican Republic’s natural resources through actions to spur sustainable growth.

Phelan said its commitment with the network Tropicalia Foundation affirms that its programs support Tropicalia’s RSE strategy for Miches’ sustainable development and community integration, and to protect the zone’s natural resources. “Tropicalia Foundation’s participation in RENAEPA means a great opportunity to learn, to share and promote business good practices, among them transparency, social responsibility and sustainable development in the Dominican Republic.”

Around 15,000 foreign tourists and new species have visited the Marine Mammal Sanctuary in Samaná (Dominican northeast) since January 15, in the current humpback whale watching season, the Environment Ministry said today.

The figure is 30 percent higher than the first weeks of the 2009 season, and sets a record in attendance, said Whale Observation Program local coordinator Peter Sanchez in a statement.

Hundreds of humpback whales come to Samaná Bay every year from Iceland, Greenland, Canada and the United States north coast, to mate and give birth.

Sanchez added other species have also been observed that in the current season such as sperm whales and sharks, “which means that the safety and quality of the ecosystem make these species feel safe and remain in the country’s Marine Mammals Sanctuary.”

Maximo Brito, director of the office in Puerto Rico responsible for the construction of the project in Constanza (center), said it will be developed in three years and will be the most innovative ecotourism project ever conceived in the country’s North region and will be a model ecological and retirement city for Dominicans and foreigners.

“The zone needs the protection of its environment and the investors from New York and London such as Sergio Pino, president of Century Home Builder, agreed that it’s essential to protect the zone and conserve its biodiversity,” Brito said.

Present in the activity, with around 170 citizens interested in the project present and held in the Miches City Council were the project’s promoters; representatives and technicians of the consulting firm ECOMAR, contracted for the Environmental Impact Evaluation; authorities and representatives of the municipal organizations and its districts El Cedro and La Gina.

The Tropicalia project, to be developed in three stages within 20 years counts on a global investment of US$2.0 billion, and will create more than 3,000 jobs in its first stage and around 14,000 when concluded.

“The tourist Resort, whose management incorporates the principles of sustainable development and is guided by a solid policy of social and corporate responsibility, will have a beach hotel with 80 rooms, another mountain one with 120 rooms and 600 individual houses, with 3.5 rooms per hectare, making Tropicalia the the country’s lowest density tourist development,” said William R. Phelan, Tropicalia Vice-president and General Manager.

He said the Tropicalia project’s main guidelines are the development of sustainable tourism which protects the environment, integrating the communities to the project’s development and guaranteeing the access to jobs for local manpower.

He said it’s an ecological, sustainable tourism project located in Samaná Bay, Miches, El Seibo province, expected to become one of the Caribbean’s most exclusive tourism destinations and a force aimed at revitalizing the impoverished zone’s economy.

Speaking in the American Chamber of Commerce’s monthly luncheon in the presence of president Leonel Fernandez and numerous business leaders, Cisneros said his group will initially invest US$485 million during the first three years and from now on an additional US$1.5 billion in the next 20 years. “The final result will be measured with the creation of 3,000 short term jobs, 6,000 new ones in the medium term and 14,000 positions in the long term.”

The tycoon said his motivation to build Tropicalia was to materialize a socially and economically balanced project of tourism development, based on sustainability and cultural inclusion.

The Tourism chief said the same development is expected for the Montecristi zone (northwest), where investors will soon announce projects and investment amounts in that region.

Regarding the southern region, Garcia reiterated that “the South’s hour has come” and talks and analyses between officials, executives and Barahona and Pedernales social organizations are in the final stage, which would start the development of the fourth Dominican tourism region. “All this has to do with the role the country plays as a propitious investment destination.”

DominicanToday.com

The organizations will provide US$6.5 million for the fund, while the Dominican government will provide the remaining US$3.5 million. Environment Minister Omar Ramirez said that this represents an improvement in the sustainability of the nation’s ecosystem and development.

According to TNC representative William Welter, the agreement shows the reach of inter-organizational and international cooperation. The SINAP includes 86 sites and covers 11,500 kilometers, or 24% of Dominican territory.

Since early morning Monday angry groups of opposition PRD party members and City Council employees occupied the Courthouse’s outers areas, hallways and the chambers where the case was to be heard, chanting support for the mayor Nelson Camilo, and against the government, leading the prosecution to seek a recess of the hearing on grounds of safety.

Work at the City Council and other activities were paralyzed yesterday, as most city workers and many vehicles in the area of the Courthouse even snarled traffic on the Baní-Azua highway.

Landestoy, five council members, the City Council president and the Ciramar executives are accused to violating Law 64-00, in the sale and lease of more than 92,000 square meters of land in the protected Dunes at Las Calderas, Baní.

source: DominicanToday.com

PEDERNALES, Dominican Republic.- The otherwise best-kept secret of the Dominican Republic yearns to become a household word, as its 89 kilometers of beaches with barely 200 basic hotel rooms makes the Pedernales peninsula a most attractive region for investors seeking future potential and for adventurers after the unspoiled.

“No high-density tourism for us,” says the ex senator Antonio Feliz Perez (Toño), who as president of the Provincial Tourism Promotion and Development Association has a vested interest in making sure this jewel in the Dominican southwest doesn’t go the way of the country’s north and east coasts, where the ‘all-inclusive’ reigns.

But the obstacles are many, distance for one. The town and provincial seat Pedernales is 119 kilometers of winding, desolate and often treacherous road away from the nearest airport at Barahona, Maria Montez International. If that doesn’t scare potential developers away there’s the ominous presence of the Haitian border and that country’s decades of turmoil.

Yet for those with a pioneering flare the sparsely populated corner of the country won’t wait much longer, as Feliz notes that (Donald) “Trump, the French already have models” of developments presumably awaiting approval and/or joint ventures. “There is a fear of competition from the East, from Puerto Plata; no one lends money to build them, the government is pressured not to issue the permits.”

The exception would have to be the incomparable Bahia de las Aguilas. Mired in scandal for over a decade, would-be land robbers sought to claim this over 15 kilometer long strip of virgin beach by posing as farmers after the lands were declared agrarian reform in the early 1990s despite its almost desert-like vegetation and rocky soil.

Ecotourism, ecotourism

Repeating it won’t make it happen but many of the residents here feel that if the rules prohibit construction of massive hotels then let the alternative in. “Bahia de las Aguilas is not in the Jaragua National Park,” Feliz notes, but acknowledges that its protected category allow only eco-friendly structures.

The former lawmaker takes pride listing the region’s attractions for visitors. “We can sell a destination of two countries; low humidity and the least rainfall; various microclimates and the spectacular depression Hoyo de Pelempito,” and the dizzying heights of the Sierra de Baoruco mountains that envelop it.

In fact the entire extreme southwest region has been declared a biosphere patrimony of the world, precisely for its unrivaled diversity which includes the 40 meter below sea level Lago Enriquillo, the Oviedo Lagoon, and the Beata and Alto Velo islands, all within an area less than 10,000 kilometers square.

Developers, ecologists work together

The situation of Pedernales has created an unusual bond between those who seek to develop it for tourism and ecologists who vow to protect Mother Nature. Take Ignacio Rodriguez Feliz, who despite his family relations with Toño makes it clear their agendas differ. He said his five years crisscrossing the Baoruco wilderness has convinced him of its value for tourism. “When people come here and see what I’ve seen they’ll be convinced it needs protecting.”

And he’s seen plenty. As contractor with the Hispaniola Ornithological Society Rodriguez can describe the habits of the island’s only two native mammals -the Jutia and Solenodonte- as rare as they are reclusive. “They depend on the forests, if they are cut down they are gone.”

For Feliz Perez and Rodriguez time is on their side. After all, waiting no matter how long isn’t a bother if you’re in paradise.

Exclusive for Dominican Today Written by: Jorge Pineda