The dominican republic: reflections on ecosystem and biodiversity protection

• Author: Colin Crawford
• Position: Associate Professor, Georgia State University College of LAW, and Co-Director, Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth
• Pages: 133-182

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC:

REFLECTIONS

ON

ECOSYSTEM

AND

BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION

COLIN CRAWFORD*

Leonel Fernandez, President of the Dominican Republic, famously declared

that

his

nation

of

over nine million people1 exists

in "the

back patio

of the

United States."2

The

locution

is

striking from

a

Dominican President

not

least

because

of the

repeated involvement

-

some would

say

interference

- of the

U.S.

in

Dominican affairs during

the

course

of

its history.33

But

Ferndndez

is

a sophisticated

and

erudite scholar,

as

well

as a

politician,

and can

speak with

authority

on the

history

of the

Americas, from before

the

Monroe Doctrine

Associate Professor, Georgia State University College

of

LAW,

and

Co-Director, Center

for the

Comparative

Study

of

Metropolitan Growth.

The US

Commission

for the

International Exchange

of

Scholars awarded

me

a

Fulbrignt Grant

to

study

and

teach

in the

Dominican Republic

in the

Spring 2006 term, when

work

on

this article commenced.

Dr.

Yolanda Le6n, Professor

of

Biology'

at the

Instituto Tecnologico

de

Santo Domingo (INTEC), where

I was in

residence, helped guide

me on

this subject

and

was enormously

generous with

her

time

and

knowledge.

Dr.

Jose Conrreras Scott, Vice Rector

in

Basic Sciences, INTEC,

provided

a

comfortable work environment

and

other institutional support. Cesar

A,

Vargas Piemntel,

Executive Director

of

the Environmental

Law

Institute

of

the Dominican Republic,

and

Professor Gustavo

Mena, both provided helpful guidance

on

Dominican environmental law. Carmen

G.

Gonzalez provided

useful comments

on an

early draft. Georgia Stare College

of

Law

Dean, Steven

J.

Kaminshine, was generous

with

his

support

of

my endeavours

as

well.

1

am

grateful

to all of

them.

1

As

of July, 2006,

the U.S.

Central Intelligence Agency estimates that

the

population

is 9,

183,

984: VS.

Central Intelligence Agency,

the

World Factbook, hrtps://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/faabook/geos/

dr.html#People (accessed August

14,

2006).

2 "Somos

el

patio trasero

de

Estadoi Unidos

..." El

Pais (Spain),

Feb. 27,

2006, www.elpais.es (accessed

April

3,

2006).

3

The

Dominican Republic

has

twice been subject

to

U.S. control

of

its

affairs.

The

first occasion

was in the

first decade

of

the

20th

century,

in the

events that

led to the

signing

of the

Dominican-U.S. Treaty, which

solidified

U.S.

control

of

Dominican economic life

and

gave

it

rights

to

intervene politically.

See

Frank

Moya Pons, Manual

De

Historic Dominicana

13th

ed.(2002), 439-455. Within

the

next decade,

the U.S.

occupied

the

country militarily:

ibid,

pp.475-494,

The

second event occurred during

the

tumultuous civil

war

in the

years following

the

death

of

the dictator Leonel Trujillo, when President Lyndon Johnson sent

42,000 troops

to

ptotect "north American interests"

in the

island nation:

ibid., at 534.

and since then.44 Without question, he used the phrase with deliberation.5 For

Fernandez, the phrase thus doubtless represented many things, among them

the economic and social dependence of the Dominican Republic upon the

United States and the history of expansionism and territorial control that mark

nearly two centuries of

U.S.

involvement with the Caribbean nation.6

The phrase also resonates in the area of Environmental Law and policy,

although likely this did not cross Fernandez' mind when he used it. Specifically,

the proximity of the Dominican Republic to the continental U.S. and to its

Caribbean possessions to the east - Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands -

begs

questions about the designation of particular areas for special environmental

protection, management and oversight. At a general level of inquiry, this

is to ask whether richer nations like the U.S. may have responsibilities to

protect ecosystems and biodiversity beyond their territorial borders without a

corresponding right to interfere in the affairs of those nations.

Specifically in the context of this paper, Fernandez' phrase compels us to

ask whether the United States bears responsibility for environmental protection

in the Dominican Republic. This is a complicated question, and needs to be

unpacked. Importantly, too, this question has ramifications that go well beyond

the relations between a small and, in geo-political terms, relatively unimportant

country and the current world superpower. To ask such a question on its

surface raises the specter of a reassertion of colonial power, and so has historical

4 As the author heard him do in Santo Domingo at a February, 2006 debate with the linguist and political

activist Noam Chomsky.

5 "Una de las cualidades positivas del doctor Fernandez

es

que no habla

'a

lo

loco'

ni como el que 'culpa y no siente'.

Su manera de ser lo empuja a ser medido en sus expresiones, y a cuidarse en su decir, para 'no meter la pata'."

Reginaldo Atanay; "Dominicano: Patio trasero de Estados Unidos?", El Diariol La Prensa Online July 23,

2004 ( accessed April 3, 2006) (referring to the controversy over this statement, explaining that "one of the

positive qualities of Dr. Fernandez is that he speaks neither 'to the crazy' nor with 'blame without feeling'.

His manner is to strive to be measured in his expressions, and to take care in what he says, so as 'not to put

his foot in it'.")

6 A leading Dominican historian (and the first Minister of the Environment) describes in detail the various

efforts of the U.S. to exert control over the Caribbean nation, from the creation of the Samana Bay company

in the 1870s, in order to control the strategically located Samana peninsula, Moya Pons, infra n.20, at 376,

and the later effort of Theodore Roosevelt to "eliminate once and for all the European interference in

Dominican finances and politics and substitute that influence for an administrative financial protectorate

already expressed in the Convention of February, 1905." Moya Pons, Manual De Historia, infra n.20, at

444: "El interes del Gobierno de los Estados Unidos era eliminar de una vezpor todas la ingerencia [sic] europea

de las finanzas y la politica dominicana y substituir esa influenciapor un protectorado administrativo frnanciero

expresado ya en el Convenio defebrero de 1905." Others, notably the former leftist President, the historian

and novelist Juan Bosch, credited the U.S. military occupation for making possible the entry into a military

career and subsequent ascent of the tyrannical dictator Trujillo, who was trained under U.S. occupation: see,

e.g., Juan Bosch, Trujillo: Causas De Una Ttrania Sin Ejemplo (2003) 124. More immediately, today nearly

80%

of the island nation exports go to the United States: U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the World

Factbook (henceforth CIA World Factbook), available at: https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/

geos/dr.html#Econ ( accessed August 16, 2006). Dominicans now constitute the single largest immigrant

group in New York City, with nearly 400,000 residents: The City of New York, Source Countries of Foreign

Born,

http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/census/nny_exec_sum.shtml ( accessed August 15, 2006).

and political reverberations that need exploring well beyond the particular

example of U.S.-Dominican relations. In addition, such a question demands

an examination of the extent of responsibility by powerful, richer countries

to other nations

—

whether neighbors or not

—

under the maturing system

of global Environmental Law. Moreover, the question asks us to consider the

extent to which, irrespective of international or regional treaty commitments,

one nation bears responsibility for the environmental effects of

its

actions. Put

another way this is to say for example: if the Dominican Republic is really in

our back patio, what role, if

any,

do we bear in keeping it - as part of a property

over which we have some dominion - in order?

This article seeks to answer that question. In Part I, it will briefly

lay

out the

urgency of strengthening the Dominican system of Environmental Protection

Areas,

both for that nation and for the region of which it is a pan. Part I

thus endeavors to outline the importance of Protected Areas as the fulcrum of

a larger plan of environmental protection aimed at protection of everything

from pristine environments to densely settled urban areas. It will also look in

particular at the Dominican struggle to preserve biodiversity in the face of the

promise of expanded tourist development.

The tourism example is, it should be noted, a significant one not only as

regards the Dominican Republic but throughout the world, since, for many

poorer nations, tourism promises to bring much-needed economic development

and this puts enormous strain on the environment and natural resource use.

Parr I will undertake, finally, to locate the role of Dominican Protecred Areas

within a larger, regional context. Part II will detail the existing legal responses

to such protection, looking at Dominican legal obligations. In this. Part II will

elaborate some of the competing tensions and obligations present in Dominican

legislation affecting protected environmental areas, especially as they relate to

the sometimes competing goals of environmental protection and rapid mass

tourism development.

Part III will then explore the particular roles and responsibilities, if any of

the United States and other, richer nations with respect to the protection of

environmentally-sensitive areas in the Dominican Republic. Part III will do this

by examining existing multi-lateral regional and international obligations that

might serve to balance environmental, and specifically biodiversity, protection

and economic development.

In this, Pan III particularly limns the underlying tension in any such action

by the U.S., in light of the historical, political and economic implications of

any such activities. Moreover, and once again, the question of tourism - and

how it should be managed

—

looms large over this discussion. Part IV will

then identify a solution that would locate the responsibility for enforcing the