NewsWhore
03-19-2007, 05:50 PM
As part of its commitment to meet the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, the Dominican government, in conjunction with Columbia University has announced a pioneering, large-scale sustainable development project for the municipality of Miches, in the eastern province of El Seibo.
Miches, with a population of just 20,000, is a relatively untouched area of remarkable natural beauty and ecological diversity, and the project aims to develop the area in an environmentally sustainable way, with the full involvement of local communities.
Initiatives include reforestation and a micro-hydro power generation system using the existing waterfall network, which energy experts believe could potentially generate more electricity than the local population needs, and thus feed the national power grid with the surplus. The project also aims to clean up local lagoons, rivers and coastline where pollution has depleted fish stocks and contaminated drinking water sources.
All this will be combined with a social component, improving health and education facilities in the municipality, where according to the project staff, almost 100% of the population lives below the poverty line. This scenic part of the country with virgin beaches, verdant slopes, waterfalls and lagoons is ripe for discovery by tourism developers, so a key element of the project is to ensure that any tourism developments in the Miches area are environmentally sustainable and include the local community.
Several government entities are involved in the project's planning and implementation, including the Presidential Commission for Millennium Goals and Sustainable Development led by John Gagain, the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Education, the Municipality of Miches and the First Lady's Office.
A video about the Miches project, narrated by Don Melnick of Columbia University was presented last week during a seminar at Punta Cana Resort and Club sponsored by the New York Times Institute on the Environment, and organized and hosted by the Center for Environment, Economy and Society (CEES) at Columbia University (New York), the Puntacana Ecological Foundation and Theodore W. Kheel.
Sixteen journalists from the United States, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic attended the seminar, mostly environmental correspondents and business journalists representing a range of media, from ABC News to the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Seattle Times. Dominican weekly publication Clave and dr1.com were also represented at the event.
Speakers at the week long seminar included climate change expert Drew Shindell (NASA and Goddard Institute), eminent authority on international water resource issues Upmanu Lal from Columbia University, leading fisheries expert Ellen Pikitch from the Pew Institute of Ocean Science, environmental biologist Don Melnick from Columbia University, Mary Pearl from the Wildlife Trust and economists Brian Murray from Duke University and Ramanan Laxminarayan from Resources for the Future. Jocelyn Zuckerman from Conde Nast Publications led a series of workshops with the journalists, focused on reporting scientific and environmental issues in the media.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)
Miches, with a population of just 20,000, is a relatively untouched area of remarkable natural beauty and ecological diversity, and the project aims to develop the area in an environmentally sustainable way, with the full involvement of local communities.
Initiatives include reforestation and a micro-hydro power generation system using the existing waterfall network, which energy experts believe could potentially generate more electricity than the local population needs, and thus feed the national power grid with the surplus. The project also aims to clean up local lagoons, rivers and coastline where pollution has depleted fish stocks and contaminated drinking water sources.
All this will be combined with a social component, improving health and education facilities in the municipality, where according to the project staff, almost 100% of the population lives below the poverty line. This scenic part of the country with virgin beaches, verdant slopes, waterfalls and lagoons is ripe for discovery by tourism developers, so a key element of the project is to ensure that any tourism developments in the Miches area are environmentally sustainable and include the local community.
Several government entities are involved in the project's planning and implementation, including the Presidential Commission for Millennium Goals and Sustainable Development led by John Gagain, the Ministry of Economy, Planning and Development, the Ministry of Environment, the Ministry of Education, the Municipality of Miches and the First Lady's Office.
A video about the Miches project, narrated by Don Melnick of Columbia University was presented last week during a seminar at Punta Cana Resort and Club sponsored by the New York Times Institute on the Environment, and organized and hosted by the Center for Environment, Economy and Society (CEES) at Columbia University (New York), the Puntacana Ecological Foundation and Theodore W. Kheel.
Sixteen journalists from the United States, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic attended the seminar, mostly environmental correspondents and business journalists representing a range of media, from ABC News to the Miami Herald, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Seattle Times. Dominican weekly publication Clave and dr1.com were also represented at the event.
Speakers at the week long seminar included climate change expert Drew Shindell (NASA and Goddard Institute), eminent authority on international water resource issues Upmanu Lal from Columbia University, leading fisheries expert Ellen Pikitch from the Pew Institute of Ocean Science, environmental biologist Don Melnick from Columbia University, Mary Pearl from the Wildlife Trust and economists Brian Murray from Duke University and Ramanan Laxminarayan from Resources for the Future. Jocelyn Zuckerman from Conde Nast Publications led a series of workshops with the journalists, focused on reporting scientific and environmental issues in the media.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#6)