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

I. INTRODUCTION II. WHY PROTECTED AREAS IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (OR ANYWHERE ELSE) MATTER A. What is an Environmental Protection Area? B. Extent of Dominican Biodiversity C. Importance of Protected D. Tourism: Engine of Protection or Destruction? 1. Lack of Economic Diversity 2. Distributional Justice Concerns: Privileged Tourism and Environmental Harm 3. Long Term Environmental Damage 4. Social Consequences of Environmental Damage III. LEGAL REGULATION AFFECTING DOMINICAN PROTECTED AREAS A. Dominican Law and Policy of Protected 1. Framework Law 64/00 2. Sectoral Law for Protected 3. Sectoral Law for Biodiversity Protection 4. The Problem of Presidential Decree Laws a. Recent Decree Laws as Threats to Environmental Protection b. Liberated Areas B. Lack of Coherence Between Laws & Efforts Affecting Environment and Protected C. Projects to Promote Implementation of Laws D. Enforcement of Dominican Protected Law IV. INTERNATIONAL LAW AND POLICY A. The Extent to Which Rich Nations Have an Obligation to Help Protect Biodiversity in Poorer Nations B. International Instruments to Protect Biodiversity 1. The Rio Declaration and Agenda 21 2. Convention on Biological Diversity 3. Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety C. Regional Controls: Implications of CAFTA-DR D. CAFTA-DR's Environmental Provisions 1. Article 17 2. Key Definitions within CAFTA-DR 3. Advancing Environmental Claims within CAFTA-DR V. SEEKING SOLUTIONS FOR BIODIVERSITY PROTECTION A. Responsibilities of Host Nation B. Dominican Case C. Responsibilities of Richer Nations 1. Global Responses 2. A Global Solution of National Dimensions I. INTRODUCTION Leonel Fernandez, President of Dominican Republic, famously declared that his nation of over nine million people (1) exists in the back patio of United States. (2) The locution is striking from a Dominican president, notably because of repeated involvement--some would say interference--of U.S. in Dominican affairs during course of its history. (3) But Fernandez is a sophisticated and erudite scholar, as well as a politician, and can speak with authority on history of Americas from before Monroe Doctrine and since. (4) Without question, he used phrase with deliberation. (5) For Fernandez, phrase thus doubtless represented many things, among them economic and social dependence of Dominican Republic upon United States, and history of expansionism and territorial control that marks nearly two centuries of U.S. involvement with Caribbean nation. (6) The phrase also resonates in area of environmental law and policy, although likely this did not cross Fernandez' mind when he used it. Specifically, proximity of Dominican Republic to continental U.S. and to its Caribbean possessions to east--Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands--begs questions about designation of particular areas for special environmental protection, management and oversight. At a general level of inquiry, this is to ask whether richer nations like U.S. may have responsibilities to protect ecosystems and biodiversity beyond their territorial borders without a corresponding right to interfere in affairs of those nations. Specifically, in context of this paper, Fernandez' phrase compels us to ask whether United States bears responsibility for environmental protection in Dominican Republic. This is a complicated question and needs to be unpacked. Importantly, too, this question has ramifications that go well beyond relations between a small and, in geopolitical terms, relatively unimportant country and current world superpower. …