Protecting Environmentally-Sensitive Areas and Promoting Tourism in 'The Back Patio of the United States:' Thoughts About Shared Responsibilities in Ecosystem and Biodiversity Protection

Abstract

This is the first of several articles detailing and anlyzing Latin American biodiversity and protected areas laws. It deals specifically with the protected areas legislation in the Dominican Republic - on paper, powerful, comprehensive legal documents. As the article describes, however, this legislation is threatened by both domestic political forces, in the form of Presidential decree laws that can effectively override congressional and administrative enactments, and by foreign investment interests that, in the name of free trade, run havoc with a world biodiversity hotspot. The article therefore considers the responsibility of both Dominicans and non-Dominicans who benefit and profit from its celebrated natural environment to aid in its long-term protection. It focuses especially on the environmental impact of mass tourism, which remains one of the least regulated major economic activities in the Caribbean and in much of the world.

Keywords: biodiversity, protected areas, environmental protection, tourism, Latin America, the Caribbean