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Dominican Protected
Areas are Threatened by

Congressional Action
23 April 2004 — Santo Domingo,

Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic, with its 48,700
km2 of land, is home to some of the most
diverse habitat in the Caribbean Islands,
and to extremely rich, largely endemic, and
highly threatened biotic communities.
These factors are very significant in placing
the Caribbean Islands among the five most
important global biodiversity hotspots. In
1974, an important process was initiated to
establish a comprehensive system of pro-
tected areas. Today, these areas encompass
16.2 % of the land area of the country and
include nearly all of the most critical ecosys-
tems.

Throughout this period, the
Dominican institutional and legal frame-
work has evolved to the point where a
General Framework Environmental Law
(Law 64-00) was passed in 2000. This law
reformed and modernized the environmen-
tal sector, created the Ministry for
Environment and Natural Resources, and
mandated the development of other envi-
ronmentally relevant laws, including a new
Protected Areas Law. The Ministry of
Environment developed a proposed
Sectorial Protected Areas Law and submit-
ted it to the National Congress in August
2002. This proposed law included certain
changes and revisions in the Dominican
Protected Areas System, within the general
framework of the existing system.

On 13 April 2004, the Dominican
Senate read and approved the proposed
Protected Areas Law with significant
changes that drastically reduce and render
unsustainable the Dominican System of
Protected Areas, which were created
through the hard work of many individuals
and institutions over the past 30 years. The
proposal still must be approved by the
deputies and signed by the President of the
Republic in order to become law.

The drastic reduction, almost destruc-
tion, of the protected areas system is sup-
posedly based on the need to fight poverty
by allowing local development in formerly
protected habitats. In fact, all restrictions are
removed in areas considered of potential
interest for intensive beach/costal tourism
and/or mining development. Besides
destroying the protected areas, strong evi-
dence exists that the so-called “develop-
mental initiatives” sought by this proposal

do not have strong popular support, nor do
they include provisions for adequate inclu-
sion of locals in development projects.

Among other things, the proposed law
removes protection from all the costal areas
of Jaragua and Parque del Este national
parks. Jaragua, included in the first
Biosphere Reserve of the Dominican
Republic, was just approved at the end of
2002 by the present administration.
Regional, insular, and national resources are
at risk with this initiative. Globally impor-
tant sites for endangered and critically
endangered ecosystems and species would
disappear. These include coastal wetlands,
areas important for migratory, resident, and
marine birds, and globally significant sites
for the critically endangered species such as
the Hawksbill Sea Turtle (Eretmochelys
imbricata), West Indian Manatee
(Trichechus manatus), and Rock Iguanas
(Cyclura ricordii and Cyclura cornuta).

Rushing to Sell Park
Beaches

6 May 2004 — Santo Domingo,
Dominican Republic

Four of today’s Dominican newspapers, La
Informacion from Santiago, Diario Libre,
Listin Diario, and El Caribe, all from Sto.
Domingo, featured the hurried passage of
the much-debated bill that would reduce
from 30 to 15% the extent of protected
areas in the National Parks of the
Dominican Republic.

By a vote of 93 to 14, the PRD major-
ity, together with some members of the
PRSC, rolled over some very heated opposi-
tion. If ratified in a second reading, the
action would grant access for tourist devel-
opment of beaches located within the
National Park of the East and Jaragua
National Park (in the southwest), as well as
areas in the southwestern Bani dunes and
along the Costa Azul Panoramic Highway in
Macao in the east. The bill’s provisions also
authorize mining exploitation of the Pomier
Caves in San Cristobal. The bill, first passed
in the Senate, supposedly in the name of
pragmatism, removed from the National
Parks Bill practically any area that could be
developed for tourism or mining. The bill
also diminishes the role of the Ministry of
Environment in environmental matters.

In what the Listin Diario calls a “huge
uproar,” the session attempted to debate the
merits of the changes to the national parks.
As soon as the PRD deputy from

Pedernales, Rafael Torres, took the floor in
support of the bill, the PLD deputies and
their allies from the FNP (National
Progressive Force) actively challenged the
proposal. They accused the Presdient of the
Chamber of Deputies, Alfredo Pacheco
(PRD-National District), of being “arbitrary
and abusing his powers” as he tried to push
the legislation through without review by
the appropriate legislative commission.

Things got so interesting that Pacheco
ordered the military security detail to
remove the environmental editor of Hoy
newspaper, Domingo Abreu Collado, from
the Chamber because he was filming the
session. Although PLD deputies Alfredo
Cruz, Abel Martinez, Clodomiro Chavez,
and Minu Tavarez Mirabal opposed the
steamrolling tactics and requested that the
final vote be taken after the 16 May elec-
tions, the overwhelming PRD majority sec-
onded by PRSC deputies voted down their
motion and passed the proposal. While the
deputies were in session, a small group of
picketers protested outside the building.

The Santiago newspaper, La
Informacion, reported that a large public
protest outside of the Municipal Palace
started in the evening and featured speeches
by ecologists and environmental groups as
well as the politicians who fought to have
the bill stopped. A candlelight vigil was held
into the early morning hours. No public
hearings were held, nor were the different
ecological groups allowed to present their
case before the Chamber of Deputies.

According to El Caribe, the
Foundation for Institutionalism and Justice
(FINJUS) warned deputy Pacheco that the
style of his term as president of the Chamber
of Deputies should not be stained by the
hurried approval and no consensus of the
modifications to the law that has protected
the National Park system. In what has to be
seen as an ironic coincidence, even the “La
Vida” section of the government-operated
Listin Diario featured a long article on the
Bay of Eagles losing its “virginity.” The
writer lamented that this would be the last
time that she would see the “Bahia de las
Aguilas” intact and pristine. The new bill
also would violate an agreement signed with
UNESCO that had declared the area a
UNESCO biosphere reserve (see http://
www2.unesco.org/mab/br/brdir/directory/
biores.asp?code=DOM+01&mode=all).

Meanwhile, well-respected investiga-
tive journalist Ana Mitila Lora wondered in
her column in Listin Diario, “What’s the
rush?”

96 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 11, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2004 RAMER

Threat to Dominican Protected Areas



IGUANA  •  VOLUME 11, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2004 97CYCLURA RICORDII

Nine species of Hispaniolan Curly-tailed Lizards (Genus
Leiocephalus) are currently recognized. Of these, L. semilin-

eatus is the smallest, with a maximum known snout-vent length
of 53 mm. In addition to its small size, this species is distinguished
by the light-bordered, dark brown lateral stripes that begin as a
mask and extend onto the body before fading near the hindlimbs.
These fading lateral stripes are responsible for the species’ scien-
tific name.

The species is known from the Llanos de Azua and also from
the Valle de Neiba of the Dominican Republic through the Cul-
de-Sac plain of Haiti. The latter area is largely below sea level and
is a remnant of the marine channel that once separated the North
and South paleoislands that joined to form Hispaniola. An appar-
ent hiatus in the range separates those two areas.

These little lizards are found in extremely dry habitats and
may be among the most drought-tolerant of Hispaniolan lizards.
They frequently occur in sympatry with Ameiva lineolata, a very
small member of its genus and equally xerophilic (from the Greek
meaning “dry-loving”). Although both species feed primarily on
small arthropods, they apparently avoid most competition with
one another by employing different foraging strategies.
Leiocephalus semilineatus, like all of its congeners, is a sit-and-wait
forager. Using an elevated perch on a rock or log, these lizards
respond to movement by ambushing their prey. In contrast,
Ameiva lineolata, is an active forager, constantly on the move and
rooting in surface litter, while searching for anything edible.
Although their diets overlap, a large proportion of that taken by
L. semilineatus is composed of insects, such as ants and beetles,
that move and attract the attention of lizards, whereas that of A.
lineolata includes many prey items, such as pupae and larvae, that
rest immobile under surface debris and would escape the notice
of a sit-and-wait forager.

Like other Curlytails, L. semilineatus coils its tail. Unlike
some members of the genus, however, the tail is never curled ver-
tically over the lizard’s body. The reasons for this behavior are
unknown, although luring insect prey, communication, and con-
fusing predators have been mentioned as possibilities.

References
Nelson, S.E., B.L. Banbury, R.A. Sosa, and R. Powell. 2001. Natural

history of Leiocephalus semilineatus in association with sympatric
Leiocephalus schreibersii and Ameiva lineolata. Contemporary
Herpetology 2001(1): 1–6 + 4 figs. + 2 tables (http://www.cnah.org/
ch/ch/2001/1/index.htm).

Nelson, S.E. and R. Powell. 2002. Leiocephalus semilineatus. Catalogue
of American Amphibians and Reptiles (751): 1–2.

Powell, R. 2002. Species Profile: Leiocephalus personatus. Iguana Times 9: 80.

S P E C I E S  P R O F I L E

Leiocephalus semilineatus

Robert Powell

Avila University, Kansas City, Missouri

An adult male Leiocephalus semilineatus from near Hatillo, Azua
Province, Dominican Republic. Photograph by Robert Powell.

President Mejia has been a strong sup-
porter of the development of National Parks
for tourism or mining, and has issued sev-
eral decrees authorizing private companies
to begin development. The only obstacle,
however, has been that, at the onset of this
administration, Mejia had signed
Environmental Law 64-00, which estab-
lished guidelines for the conservation of nat-
ural resources. The new bill that is moving
ahead in Congress would resolve this
impasse and enable unchecked development

of the new areas by companies chosen by
the Mejia government.

Dominican Legislature
Passes the Revised

Protected Areas Law
13 May 2004 — Santo Domingo,

Dominican Republic

Today, the Dominican Congress approved the
Protected Areas Law with significant changes
that drastically reduce and render unsustain-
able the Dominican System of Protected
Areas The two areas that have suffered the
most are Parque Nacional Jaragua and
Parque Nacional del Este. The struggle by
Dominican and international environmen-
talists continues, but is becoming more and
more difficult. The bill will now pass to the
President for approval — but  he has stated
publicly on several occasions that he favors it.


