Environment authorized tourist project next to Bahia de las Aguilas

SANTO DOMINGO. Barely four days after President Danilo Medina decided to reject the settlement agreement regarding the lands around the Bay of Eagles (Bahia de las Aguilas) in Pedernales, the Ministry of the Environment produced a letter reporting the approval of the environmental license for the Eco del Mar project (Echo of the Sea). The project belongs to the Italian investor Augusto Aldo Meroni. This project, according to the information on the Internet, will be located in La Cueva (The Cave), just next to the Bahia de las Aguilas and includes the construction of 228 hotel rooms and villas.

The "letter requiring payment" dated last 25 February and addressed to Meroni as the representative and promoter of the project, says that "after the conclusion of the process of review and evaluation of the Study of Environmental Impact of your project "Eco del Mar", code 6767, the Ministry of the Environment and Natural Resources now has prepared your Environmental license." The approval of the license was confirmed also by the Minister himself, Bautista Rojas Gomez.

In the letter the ministry requires the investor to pay for the license which all told is one million pesos, of which he had advanced as of that date RD$308,691.39 The letter adds moreover that:"in order to pick up the license you should present the original receipt of the payment of the performance bond, made out to the Ministry of the Environment."

The manner in which the permit was granted was questioned by some sectors. The honorific representative of the state in the judicial process which covers the lands of the Bahia de las Aguilas, Laura Acosta Lora, says she does not understand how a license can be granted for a project whose lands have not been accurately surveyed.

She explained that, independent of whether (Meroni) has bought the lands from the government and that they say that this parcel is not outside of the protected area, there should be cadastral plans with the boundaries before issuing a license for a project, since if not then there is no way of knowing exactly where the project is located and authorized.

Nonetheless, Rojas Gomez, who did not want to get into details, said that he has all of the documents needed for the project.

The environmentalist Luis Carvajal, a member of the Environmental Commission of the Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (UASD), also feels that the manner in which the environmental license was granted is suspicious.

"One aspect that looks suspicious is that here are people that have been waiting for years for the approval of an environmental license in situations that are much simpler and in areas much less complex; and this guy (Meroni) presents a project and in spite of the technical reports which advise against it, he gets the permit really fast, speedily, which indicates that there are "extra-environmental" reasons and beyond the debate itself over the technical nature, which moves one to believe that there is a determination to give that permit," he said.