The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Miguel Ceara Hatton, highlighted the crucial role of citizens in the protection of protected areas and the promotion of sustainability, as he led the signing ceremony with various social organizations for two agreements for the co-management of the Padre Nuestro National Park, Cotubanamá Sector, and the La Ceiba Natural Monument.
“The only way to build power is by mobilizing society and having an active role in building a new society,” said Ceara Hatton.
He added that citizen participation in governance spaces will contribute to creating a different balance of power in the Dominican Republic.
“When society takes ownership and participates in spaces like this, it becomes an exercise in citizenship and a way of building power. What they are doing together with us, for the benefit of the collective, for the benefit of society, makes a significant difference,” the minister stated.
The co-management agreement for the Padre Nuestro National Park, Cotubanamá Sector, was signed by Minister Ceara Hatton, Vice Minister Federico Franco, of Protected Areas and Biodiversity; Lidia Pereyra, of the Padre Nuestro Guides Association; the renowned biologist Felicita Heredia Lorenzo, of the Dominican Foundation for Marine Studies, and Ana García Sotoca, of the La Romana-Bayahíbe Tourism Cluster.
Meanwhile, the one for the La Ceiba Natural Monument was signed by Víctor José Martínez, from the Iberia Foundation.
Ceara Hatton emphasized the importance of these agreements as a tool for building a more participatory and powerful society. “An agreement, by its very nature, synthesizes two fundamental aspects of the kind of society we must build,” the minister stated.
“One is social participation. Development should be a matter of rights, but in reality it is a matter of power. And if it is a matter of power, we have to learn how to build power,” he said.
Meanwhile, Deputy Minister Franco highlighted the strategic alliance with civil society organizations.
“Today is a significant day for all of us, as we reaffirm our commitment to the preservation and sustainable management of our protected areas.”.
The Padre Nuestro National Park, Cotubanamá Sector, preserves a compact tropical forest with diverse environments, ecosystems and habitats that, in turn, foster great biological diversity.
Meanwhile, the La Ceiba Natural Monument protects a specimen of a giant tree, with enormous roots and a corpulent size, considered the largest and oldest in the national territory.
This unique ceiba tree (Ceiba pentandra) is located in the province of Santiago de los Caballeros, exhibiting very particular physical characteristics, with an average height of approximately 25 meters, a trunk with an average diameter at breast height of 12.30 meters and an extended crown of approximately 530 square meters.
