Environmental project: A fifth of the Dominican Republic is being made green again. Next step on the way to Mars: This is what happens next with “Odysseus”.

We all know images of burning forests in the Amazon. Deforestation has been going on for decades: the rainforest is being cleared primarily to grow soy, which is fed to our animals, but also for palm oil, timber, paper and mineral resources.

Environmental organizations have been calling for some time: “Deforestation must stop.” Because the rainforest is largely responsible for our global climate.

Success after ten years of work: environmental project plants trees

Last year, for the first time in decades, less rainforest was cut down than in previous years, but the rainforest is still moving towards a critical point: if more forest is cut down, the ecosystem could collapse and become a desert.

The situation in the Dominican Republic is looking better, as “El País”, Spain’s largest daily newspaper, reported. Within ten years, a fifth of the previously cleared area had been revegetated.

The Plan Yaque environmental project is partly responsible for this success. This aims to promote the sustainable development of the Yaque del Norte river basin. With a length of 296 kilometers, the Yaque del Norte is the longest river in the Caribbean country.

According to the Global Nature Fund, an international foundation for the environment and nature, a lot of forests were cleared in some regions of the Dominican Republic, especially in the 1980s, due to the cultivation of sugar cane and the mining of gold and nickel. and silver.

Holidaymakers and the growing population threaten biodiversity

According to “El País”, population growth and uncontrolled tourism also pose a threat to the conservation of biodiversity in the Dominican Republic.

Project convinced landowners to plant trees on properties

Back in 2009, engineer Humberto Checo decided to reforest the basin around the Yaque del Norte River. “It was clear. The mountains remained bare because the wood was sold and people kept livestock or grew crops. We had to do something,” he told El País.

Thirty government organizations and NGOs are involved in the project. Their plan is to convince landowners that reforestation is also to their advantage. Several teams travel through the area and visit farm by farm.

Your message to landowners and farmers: Plant trees. Because this will ensure their water supply in ten to fifteen years.

Because water is becoming increasingly scarce in the Caribbean country. Checo says the river loses 80 percent of its water between the rainy season and summer. Longer periods of drought, alternating with periods of heavy rain, are the cause of this. But because the soil is too dry, it cannot absorb all the rain. Forests and functioning ecosystems should help with this, because they can capture and store rain. The many droughts, the lots of rain – these are all consequences of the climate crisis.

20 percent of the area has been greened again

The local population also seems to have realized the problems the missing forest brings. After ten years of intensive work through the Plan Yaque project and the cooperation of the landowners, a total of almost 20 percent of the areas have been revegetated.

Other environmental projects also focus on reforestation in the Dominican Republic, including Welthungerhilfe. Their common goal: to grow and enable forests where they were once cut down. For a better future and more food security.