United Nations Development Programme
Executing Agency: Government of the Dominican Republic
PIMS 3424
Atlas Award 00050707 - Atlas Project ID 62755
Re-engineering the National Protected Area System in Order to Achieve Financial Sustainability
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SIGNATURE PAGE –
Country: Dominican Republic
UNDAF Outcome(s): / By 2011, have in place national and local policies and capacities for the protection and sustainable management of the environment, including the management of environmental risks and response to emergencies and disastersUNDP Strategic Plan Environment and Sustainable Development Primary Outcome: / Strengthened national capacities to mainstream environment and energy concerns into national development plans and implementation systems
UNDP Strategic Plan Secondary Outcome: / Countries develop and use market mechanisms to support environmental management.
Expected CP Outcome(s): National capacity for environmental management strengthened and coordinated with sustainable rural development strategies
Expected CPAP Output (s) National Protected Areas System strengthened and integrated to national and local development.
Executing Entity/Implementing Partner: Secretaría de Estado de Medio Ambiente y Recursos Naturales (SEMAREN).
Implementing Entity/Responsible Partners: UNDP
Agreed by: Date:
Agreed by: Date:
Resident Representative
Table of Contents
SECTIONPages
SIGNATURE PAGE –
LIST OF ACRONYMS
SECTION 1: ELABORATION OF THE NARRATIVE
PART I: Situation Analysis
I - 1. Context and global significance
I - 2. Socio-economic context
I - 3. Policy and legislative context
I - 4. Institutional context
I - 5. Threats to biodiversity, their root causes and impacts
I - 6. Long-term solution for strengthening PA management
I - 7. Barriers to the envisioned National Protected Areas System consolidation
I - 8. Stakeholder analysis
I - 9. Business-as-usual “Baseline” scenario
PART II: Strategy
II - 1.Project Rationale and Policy Conformity
II - 2.Project Objective, Outcomes and Outputs/activities
II - 3.Project Indicators, Risks and Assumptions
II - 4.Expected global, national and local benefits
II - 5.Country Ownership: Country Eligibility and Country Drivenness
II - 6.Sustainability
II - 7.Replicability
II - 8.Financial Modality and Cost-Effectiveness
PART III: Management Arrangements
PART IV: Monitoring and Evaluation Plan and Budget
PART V: Legal Context
SECTION II: STRATEGIC RESULTS FRAMEWORK AND GEF INCREMENT
PART I: Incremental Cost Analysis
PART II: Logical Framework Analysis / Strategic Results Framework
SECTION III: TOTAL BUDGET AND WORKPLAN
SECTION IV: ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
PART I: Other Agreements
PART II: TORs for Key Project Staff
PART III: Stakeholder Involvement Plan
PART IV: GEF-4 Tracking Tool for Strategic Objective 1, Strategic Program 2
PART V: UNDP PA Financial Sustainability Scorecard
ANNEXES(See separate file)
Annex 1:..Globally Significant Biodiversity in Dominican Republic...... 125
Annex 2:..Dominican Republic’s National Protected Area System
and its Ecosystem Representativity...... 129
Annex 3:..Overview of Environmental Funds for the NPAS in the Dominican Republic.....135
Annex 4:..Analysis of Protected Area Financial Sustainability...... 144
Annex 5:..Priority Protected Areas with High Revenue Earning Potential...... 156
Annex 6:..Analysis from Implementation of Protected Areas Management
Effectiveness Methodology (METT) (WWF/WB, 2007) ...... 167
Annex 7:..Pilot Demonstrations concerning Co-management of PAs...... 175
LIST OF ACRONYMS
ACA RD-CA-USA / Environmental Cooperation AgreementALIDES / Central American Alliance for Sustainable Development
AWP / Annual Work Plan
BD / Biodiversity
CBD / Convention of Biological Diversity
CC / Climate Change
CCAD / Central American Commission on Environment and Development
CITES / Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species
FONAMARENA / Fund for the Environment and Natural Resources
FUNDEMAR / Dominican Institute of Marine Research
GEF / Global Environment Facility
GIS / Geographic Information System
GTZ / German Cooperation Agency
IDB / Inter American Development Bank (Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo)
IPCC / Intergovernmental Agency for Climate Change
IUCN / International Union of Conservancy Nature
KfW / Entwicklungsbank, German Development Bank
M&E / Monitoring & Evaluation
METT / Management Effectiveness Tracking Tools
MTE / Mid-term Evaluation
NBSAP / National Biodiversity Strategy Action Plan
NBSAP / National Conservation and Sustainable Use Strategy for Biodiversity
NGO / Non-government Organization
NPAS / National Protected Area System
PA / Protected Area
PARCA / Central American Region Environmental Plan
PDF / Project Development Funds
PES / Payment for Environmental Services
PIRs / Annual Project Implementation Reviews
PPA / Private Protected Area
PPG / Project Preparation Grant
PRONATURA / Pro Nature Fund
RCU / Regional Coordinating Unit
RD-CAFTA / The US-Central American Free Trade Agreement
RENAEPA / National Network of Empresarial Support to the Environmental Protection
SEPA / Swedish Environmental Protection Agency
SICA / Central American Integration System
SODIN / North-east Integral Development Society
SOECI / Cibao Ecologic Society
TA / Technical Assistance
TNC / The Nature Conservancy
UNCCD / The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification
UNDAF / United Nations Development Assistance Framework
UNEP / United Nations Environment Program
UNFCCC / The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
VER / Verified Emission Reduction
WWF / World Wildlife Fund
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SECTION 1: ELABORATION OF THE NARRATIVE
PART I: Situation Analysis
I - 1. Context and global significance
1.Located in the Caribbean, the Dominican Republic occupies the approximately eastern two-thirds (48,442 km2) of HispaniolaIsland, with the western third of the island being Haiti. The country is very diverse, both physio-graphically and biologically. It exhibits diverse bioclimatic zones and topography, ranging from dry (450 mm/year) to humid (>2500 mm/year), in accordance with an altitudinal gradient that varies from 40 meters below sea level to more than 3,000 meters above sea level. Its geomorphologic diversity and its peculiar paleogeography have formed 9 different soil orders and more than 16 distinct bioclimatic regions, ranging from “thorny low hills” to “pluvious forests”. This great diversity has given rise to a wide array of ecosystems and habitats. These include arid and semi-arid zones, coastal, marine and freshwater habitats, forest ecosystems, and mountain ecosystems. Within the coastal-marine zones, the tropical characteristics and the submarine geomorphology generate an equally diverse pattern of marine environments that include very deep trenches, coral reefs, barrier islands, deep and shallow estuaries, and a great variety of keys and mangroves.
2.The country’s complex and diverse array of habitats supports a high degree of unique and globally significant biodiversity, in recognition of which it has been identified as a “Caribbean Hotspot”[1]. Over 30 endemic birds, including the threatened Ridgeways Hawk (Buteo ridgwayi) and the extremely rare La Selle’s Thrush (Turdus swalesi) and the Bay Breasted Cuckoo (Hyetornis rufigularis), in addition to 11 other endemics, are considered threatened. The Dominican Republic also hosts an additional 270 migratory bird species that rely on its natural areas as important components of the eastern flyway. Among these are the threatened Kirtland’s warbler (Dendroica kirtlandii), Bicknell’s thrush (Catharus bicknelli), and Cape May warbler (Dendroica tigrina). The country’s terrestrial biodiversity shares an additional 30% co-endemism rate with the island of Cuba, making the Dominican flora and fauna of critical importance to the Antillean biodiversity profile. Three of the nation’s terrestrial ecosystems -- the Hispaniola pine forest, the Hispaniola humid forests, and the wetlands of the Enriquillo basin -- are listed[2] among the top conservation priorities in the Latin America and the Caribbean Ecoregions.
3.Dominican marine biodiversity is also of global importance. Dominican marine environments comprise part of the central Caribbean ecoregion, which has received the highest biological value ranking from both Conservation International and the WWF, who have listed the region as among the top 5 conservation priority ecoregions in the world. The country hosts 4 of the world’s 7 sea turtle species (quelonios). The SamanaBay and offshore banks (Banco La Plata) also support the largest Atlantic calving population of humpback whales. Species such as the queen conch (strombus gigas), spiny lobsters (P. argus and guttatus), hawksbill turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and manatee (Trichechus manatus) deserve particular conservation effort because they are of commercial interest and thus subject to increased pressure.
Overview of protected areas in the Dominican Republic
4.Dominican Republic’s National Protected Areas System (NPAS) was established in 1974 through Law 67, which created the former National Park Office (Dirección Nacional de Parques). While some PAs were established earlier, their declarations were based mainly on forest protection laws.
5.Today, the NPAS includes 86 public PAs, which together encompass over 46,200 km2 or almost 22% of Dominican Republic’s terrestrial territory. The PAs are classified into 8 national management categories, which correspond to the 6 IUCN management categories as outlined in Table 1. National Parks and Forest Reserves are the management categories that cover the most national terrestrial territory with 14.29% and 5% respectively. Notably, Marine-life Sanctuaries cover more than 34,000 km2, which is more than three-fold the covered land area.
Table 1. The National Protected Areas System by management category (national and corresponding IUCN) and their territorial coverage
PA DominicanRepublic Protected Area Management Categories / No. of Protected Areas / Area (km2)* / Total % of NationalTerrestrialTerritory / IUCN Management Categories
Terrestrial / Marine / Total
Scientific Reserves (Ia) / 6 / 180.19 / 0,00 / 180.19 / 0.37 / Strictly Protected Areas (IUCN Ia)
Marine-life Sanctuaries (Ib) / 2 / 23.37 / 34,027.25 / 34,050.61 / 0.05 / Wildlife Preserve (Ib)
National Parks / 19 / 6,886.22 / 1,494.82 / 8,381.04 / 14.29 / National Parks (IUCN II)
Natural Monuments / 17 / 505.33 / 7.14 / 512.47 / 1.05 / NaturalMonument (IUCN III)
Wildlife Refuges / 15 / 230.68 / 159.30 / 389.98 / 0.48 / Wildlife Refuge (IUCN IV)
Scenic Roads / 9 / 185.59 / 13.56 / 199.15 / 0.39 / Protected Landscapes (IUCN V)
National Recreation Areas / 3 / 105.83 / 33.31 / 139.14 / 0.22
Forest Reserves / 15 / 2,412.18 / 0.00 / 2,412.18 / 5.0 / Natural Reserves (IUCN VI)
Total / 86 / 10,529.38 / 35,576.38 / 46,264.76 / 21.85
* The area figures are not entirely accurate due to the confused legal definitions of the categories, the definition of actual PA boundaries, and the differentiation between terrestrial and marine components in areas which consist of both.
Note: In the Sectoral Law of Protected Areas of the Dominican Republic (202-04), the two (2) last categories (V and VI) are in inverted order compared to those established by UICN. In this table the Management Categories appear in the internationally accepted order, not their order of appearance in Law 202-04.
Source:SEMARENA. 2009. DatafromtheMap Unitof theProtected Areas and Biodiversity Sub-secretariat. Unedited Report.
6.The NPAS also includes important cultural-historical sites.The JoseMariaCave in the EastNational Park (Parque National del Este), with more than 1,200 pictographs, is considered unique in the Americas, and this was one key element for the proposed declaration of this national park as a cultural World Heritage Site by UNESCO (designation in process).In this same park are found two of the oldest shipwrecks in the North American continent, but they are still without appropriate protection.Within the system is also found the Cave of Wonders (“Cuevas de las Maravillas”) and “el Pomier” (Borbon).The latter site possesses one of the highest concentrations of cave art in the Antilles.Other important examples of pictographs illustrating various aspects of the original cultures are found in other protected areas, such as in Los Haitises and JaraguaNational Parks.
7.Private protected areas: The Dominican Republic has private tracts of land with conservation status that makes them suitable for becoming part of the NPAS. SEMARENA recognizes that it needs to take advantage of the willingness of private landowners to have their lands declared and managed as part of the NPAS. The incorporation of Private Protected Areas (PPAs) into the NPAS could improve connectivity among its current 86 PAs. In turn, better connectivity among PAs will improve the long-term viability of HispaniolaIsland’s biodiversity, including its migratory and endemic species. However, although the General Law of the Environment and Natural Resources (Law 64-00) and the Sectoral Law of Protected Areas (Law 202-04) allow PPAs to be part of the NPAS, there is still no official Private Protected Area (PPA) in the NPAS. Hence, to date PPAs that do exist in Dominican Republic are not integrated into the NPAS, but function as stand-alone PAs outside the PA System. The recently created Private Wildlife Refuge, “Los Quemados”, situated in Azua Province (see output 3.8), as well as the Official Declaration of Municipal Protected Wildlife Areas by the Municipality of Pedernales, are concrete examples of the interest of NGOs and local governments to conserve biodiversity through the creation and management of such protected areas. Notably, the establishment of private protected areas does not entail the privatization of existing public protected areas, but rather the inclusion of private property in habitat and species conservation efforts
8.Biological representativeness: At least 18 of the 86 PA units contain important ecosystems that are recognized in international declarations, such as: i) Biosphere Reserves, ii) Wetlands of International Importance (RAMSAR Site), and iii) Global 200 Ecoregions-WWF. The country’s ecoregions are also considered part of the Greater Antilles ecoregion. As such, the NPAS contains samples of the four following ecoregions: i) Moist Forest, ii) Coniferous Forest, iii) Freshwater –SmallRiver, iv) Marine Environment. Moreover, the areas of the country with the highest endemic rates are included in the PA System. For more details, Annex 2on the PA System includes: ((i) A table with the PAs under International Declarations; (ii) a table that provides an overview of principal ecosystems along with endemic floral and faunal species in select Pas; and iii) a table that presents an indicative summary of the rate of endemism for some of the country’s main PAs.
9.The NPAS contains most of the Dominican Republic’s terrestrial biodiversity and some of its marine ecosystems. Pine forests and moist forests of the Hispaniola, for example, are almost exclusively within the NPAS. However, as part of the Convention on Biological Diversity’s Programme of Work for Protected Areas, the Dominican Republic received support from the Nature Conservancy (TNC) to conduct a study to analyze biological gaps in the PA System (see also baseline section). The analysis completed in 2009 indicates that the NPAS meets the conservation target for large terrestrial ecosystems – dry forest, moist forest and pine forest - assumed by the DR under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CDB). However, the analysis determined that, using a coarse-filter approach, 33 of the 44 objects of conservation (75%) are absent or minimally present (less than 10% of the total area of NPAS). Similarly, of the 37 singular plant species included in the analysis, 10 (27%) are not reported within NPAS; while of the 211 species of fauna, 34 (17%) do not appear as a biological component of IUCN categories I–IV. On the other hand, the representativeness of aquatic objects of conservation is above the CBD’s 10% conservation target, though some geographic regions deserve to be more represented in the NPAS or merit special conservation measures. For coastal and marine biodiversity, the analysis showed that 7 (70%) of the 10 ecosystems included surpassed the conservation target established for the Dominican Republic within the NPAS. Wetlands and estuaries are two ecosystems that are underrepresented, however. Furthermore, 4 (66.6%) of the coastal and marine objects of conservation (fine filtered) are underrepresented in the NPAS.
10.Hence, although the NPAS is composed of 86 sites, includes all IUCN categories, and covers close to 22% of the national territory, the PA System fails to protect critical biodiversity. A key explanation is that the historic development of the existing NPAS was principally driven by a concern to conserve specific species and unique features, as opposed to having been planned to protect landscapes and ecosystems and ecological processes, in addition to species. As a result, individual PAs face specific threats both to habitat and to species, and the system’s effectiveness and sustainability are limited by a number of key barriers. These factors are elaborated in sections I-5. Threats to Biodiversity, their root causes and impacts and I-7. Barriers to the envisioned NPAS consolidations, respectively.
11.In addition, as in many Latin American countries, the Dominican Republic’s NPAS is the product of a process that has not always followed rigorous scientific protocol, as illustrated by the mechanisms that are relied upon most to establish the PAs in NPAS (SEMARENA, 2007):
- PA declarations, with a focus on forestry and water production, promoted by scientists and public figures.
- Using studies of limited scope that point out the ecological value and importance of biological diversity in a certain place, a declaration of PA status was obtained through sponsorship of a sector or individual able to influence the Executive Branch.
- At the request of a decision making body, quick preparation of paperwork regarding a collection of territories of environmental importance and value.
- On the basis of basic but somewhat rigorous studies, technical entities submitted request for PA status to the former Wildlife Department of the Secretariat of Agriculture. These requests were sponsored by public figures with close ties to decision makers, especially sitting office holders.
I -2. Socio-economic context
12.Both by area and population, the Dominican Republic is the second largest Caribbean nation (after Cuba), with 48,442 km2 and an estimated 10 million people (2009 estimate). According to the World Bank, the country is also the largest economy in Central America and the Caribbean. After an economic downturn in 2004/2005, the Dominican Republic’s annual growth rate of GDP reached an impressive 10% in 2006 and 2007, amounting to a GDP per capita of $8,400 in 2007, which is relatively high in Latin America. Growth was led by imports ($12.9 billion in 2007), followed by exports ($6.8 billion in 2007), with finance and foreign investment the largest factors.
13.The Dominican Republic is primarily dependent on natural resources and government services. Although the service sector has recently overtaken agriculture as the leading employer of Dominicans (due principally to growth in tourism and Free Trade Zones), agriculture remains the most important sector in terms of domestic consumption and is in second place, behind mining, in terms of export earnings. The main export products of the country are natural resources (ferronickel, gold and silver), agricultural products (coffee, cocoa, sugar and tobacco) and increasingly also consumer goods. The strong dependency of the country’s economy on export of raw materials and agricultural products has a negative impact on the environment, especially through mining and pollution. The need for environmental protection is therefore evident. A consolidation of the national PA System would not only safeguard national biological assets, but also the ecological services that these provide to productive sectors, such as agriculture, fisheries, forestry and in particular tourism.