[DR1] Environment pushes PAN

[NewsWhore]

In an attempt to stem the soil degradation process in the Dominican Republic, where an estimated 70% of land is considered to be dry and arid, the Ministry of the Environment is broadening the PAN program. PAN is the National Action Program designed to fight the desertification process such as has occurred in neighboring Haiti. As reported in Hoy, the estimated cost of the program is US$77.7 million over the first ten-year span of the 15 years that the PAN is projecting. Ernesto Reyna, the Assistant Minister for Soils and Water, explained that an estimated five million people inhabit these degraded lands. PAN began in 2003 with work on the Artibonite basin, the country's area of greatest desertification. The project is coordinated by the Inter-institutional Group (GTI) that is a conglomeration of 20 state, local, private and international entities.

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