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Dominican Republic Forestry and Fishing
Pine, hardwood, and other tree cover, once ample,
covered
only 15 percent of the land by 1989. To offset losses
caused by
the indiscriminate felling of trees and the prevalence of
slashand -burn agriculture, the government outlawed commercial
tree
cutting in 1967. Since then, there had been some limited
development of commercial plantation forestry, but the
nation
continued to import more than US$30 million in wood
products each
year. Although not so drastic as in Haiti, deforestation
and the
erosion that it caused posed serious environmental
concerns for
the country's watersheds into the 1990s and beyond.
Reforestation
efforts drew funding from a number of international
development
agencies during the 1980s.
The fishing industry also was underdeveloped.
Undercapitalized, it consisted of only small coastal
fishermen
with modest nonrefrigerated boats, who barely exploited
the 1,600
kilometers of coastline. The government did not place much
emphasis on the industry and, therefore, provided little
financial or other assistance to fishermen.
Data as of December 1989
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