DEFORESTATION IN THE DOMINICAN-REPUBLIC - A VILLAGE-LEVEL VIEW

Deforestation is still rapid in some parts of the Caribbean, though it has attracted much less attention than deforestation in mainland Lati n America. This paper examines the history and causes of the recent ra pid deforestation of a lowland karst region of the Dominican Republic in the light of models derived from studies in Central America and the Amazon. Investigation was limited to the vicinity of a single village (Los Limones). Information was drawn from interviews, questionnaires and ground reconnaissance, in addition to archival information and aer ial photographs. Deforestation at Los Limones involved many of the sam e elements seen in mainland deforestation, including construction of a ccess roads, spontaneous agricultural colonization, and pasture conver sion, but it followed no single mainland model. Logging, not normally emphasized as a cause of Latin American deforestation, played an impor tant role in opening up the forest to agricultural settlement. Pasture conversion was not a matter of aggregation of large ranches by wealth y absentee landowners, as in the Amazon, but apparently a local respon se to the economic and ecological advantages of cattle raising. Govern ment actions strongly influenced deforestation, but not via colonizati on schemes or economic subsidies for cattle ranching; the rhythm of de forestation at Los Limones was tied to the monopolistic practices of t he dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo and the social disorganization foll owing his assassination. The national government in fact bears the pri mary responsibility for deforestation of Los Haitises, a conclusion th at contradicts the government's own suggestion that the destruction wa s largely carried out by poor farmers. Prospects for rehabilitation of the deforested area are gloomy because of the extent of ecological da mage and the continued adversarial relationship between the government and the rural population.