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PINE FORESTS
IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - A UNIQUE RESOURCE BETWEEN ALL FRONTS
By Henning Peter
The Dominican Republic has a long tradition in deterioration and degradation of its natural forests. Having arrived in the new world the Spaniards exploited what was called Santo Domingo mahogany, mainly coming from the low-lands and lower hills of the Hispaniola island for centuries. The central mountains of the Cordillera Central with altitudes of up to 3,000 m. a. s. l. are covered by endemic pine forests (Pinus occidentalis). These were not interesting for exploitation due to difficult access and - in comparison with mahogany - lesser wood quality.
After the mahogany resources had been exploited the run on the mountain forests began, primarily from the 1930s onwards (Dotzauer 1993). Until the mid 1960s big saw-mill industries exploited the pine forests to such a degree that the Dominican Republic was in the position to export pine timber (Russo 1987). In the wake of the saw-mills migrant farmers invaded the mountainous areas practising slash-and-burn agriculture.
Faced with the threat of loosing the country's last significant forest resources, the government undertook different measures to reverse this development. Large areas of the Cordillera Central were declared national parks and the 1967 forest legislation prohibited almost every forest use. Stories about peasant farmers who were put into jail for having cut branches of trees on their own compounds (Kustudia 1998) are typical examples of the government's understanding of what should be done with the remaining natural forests. Total protection seemed to be the only response, even for private tenure. At the same time various efforts were undertaken to reforest degraded agricultural land, pastures and waste land (Geilfus 1997/98). The Dominican Republic is not the first case which reveals that this kind of policy does not work.
Why should farmers reforest if they are not sure that they could harvest their plantations one day? Despite heavily subsidized attempts during the last three decades, reforested areas remain insignificant. The Ministry for Environment and Natural Resources reports a total amount of 36,000 ha for artificial forest plantations (SEMARENA 2001). Nowadays the Dominican Republic imports wood products for a corresponding value of about US$ 250 million.
Why should farmers protect their natural forest resources if they are not allowed to gain some benefit from them? In consequence, more and more forest areas suffered from gradual degradation through exploitative cuttings as well as from gradual transformation into agricultural crops and pastures.
After a favourable period at the end of the 1990s when the government allowed and even fostered forest management, the new government first prohibited all forestry operations in 2000. Since mid 2001 forest management is allowed again, but on a very limited scale. Although officially stating a policy of encouraging a prosperous development of the forestry sector this does not reflect reality. A private forest owner still has to wait up to 6 months for approval of the management plan and the management operations are then strictly controlled by government officials under often-ambiguous criteria.
With the general public the government campaigns worked well. Until today the greater part of the Dominican population, in particular in the big cities, is convinced that forests should serve primarily for environmental services and that cutting trees is a crime.
On the other hand, there are three groups of private forest owners. One, and this is the majority, intends to harvest today all what is possible due to the above mentioned unstable government sector policy and lack of expertise in and incentives for sustainable management techniques. The second group includes a huge number of smallholders who, nonetheless, possess significant forest areas. Under the current scheme - the management plans must be elaborated by a forestry professional and, in consequence, are expensive - forest management is not viable for them. Thus they continue transforming their forests into agriculture. The third one is a small proportion of forest owners who have an interest in managing their forests on a sustainable basis. They harvest and reforest at the same time and undertake efforts to organize and develop the private forestry sector.
All in all, these are not very promising conditions for the survival of the endemic pine forests of the Hispaniola island. At the moment there are 125,551 ha of Pinus occidentalis left on private properties and 176,949 ha inside the National Parks (SEMARENA 2001).
PROCARYN, a Dominican-German development cooperation watershed management project tries to reverse this trend. Through promoting and co-financing reforestation of smallholders' properties and supporting forest management that meets internationally recognized standards, the project is on the way to improve the situation at grassroots level. The experiences gained are foreseen to feed national sector policies. A permanent exchange and co-operation with the forestry administration as well as with the forestry chamber which represents the private sector are examples for important strategic partnerships which encourage the discussion on sustainable forest management. First attempts to initiate forest certification according to FSC standards will demonstrate to the general public that forest management can generate economic benefits and guarantee that the ecological functions a forest owns will be conserved.
The project is convinced that its way of protection through ecologically sound and socially sensitive management is the only possibility for Pinus occidentalis forests to survive in the long run.
Contact address:
Henning Peter
PROCARYN
Estela Geraldino No. 7
Jarabacoa
Dominican Republic
Tel.: 809-574-6727
Fax: 809-574-6994
wald.meister@web.de
References