Announcing a New & Different Blog - Meet the Green Team!

[aegap]

Look like the SNPA continues doing a great job.

http://www.diariolibre.com/app/article.aspx?id=55473

[Keith R]

Thanks for the links, aegap.

Are you personally familiar with any of these towns recent activities vis-a-vis the environment? From what I can see, the only one of the municipal sites you provided that provides any info on environment-related issues is Villa Gonzalez, and then in the context of their strategic plan up for public comment (I actually had been given a copy of it a few weeks back, but haven't had time to read it). One of the others has a photo of the mayor standing next to a trash can, but I am always skeptical of those posed politician shots that appear on official websites and then to show up in newspapers. I'd prefer to know how things look on an everyday basis to someone who lives in that place, or at least spends periods there or makes frequent (as in once every week or two) visits... Posing for a single publicity shot is easy, but performing consistently over time in a manner that the average citizen or frequent visitor would notice is a bit tougher...

If we have a DR1er in any of those towns (or any other in the DR), I would love to hear from them about the recent environmental record of their town. Comments supplemented by recent photos are best. Email greenteam@dr1.com, or email or PM me, and I'll make sure they get posted to the Green Team blog. Simple comments can be added (as two already have been, for Azua and Puerto Plata), at http://dr1.com/blogs/post_comment.ph...ment&e_id=1397

Glad to see that PARME and the EU are helping Dominican municipalities get online. In my view this is long overdue, especially for a nation that always brags about how advanced their telecom & IT service infrastructure is....

Let me add here that in a Green Team blog we did last month, "Knocking on City Hall's Door," we provided a listing of the known municipal environment departments and their contact info (where we could get it). If you or anyone else comes across more or updated info, please let us know and we'll amend the listing. We want it to become the easy-to-find, "go-to" reference on dealing with city hall on environment issues....

It's interesting and heartening to know that the desarrollomunicipal blog exists, but it says nothing about the environment. Are you suggesting we contact them? Do you know the people behind it? Unless you can show it's relevancy to this thread, I may just move it and some of the other links to the Government Forum thread I started on finding information on municipalities.

On the SNPA, I'll say that I like their attitude about transparency and accountability. Very refreshing. Sounds like they'll be giving us monthly or quarterly updates for the blog on enforcement stats. We're hoping to get the Environment Ministry to do likewise for other data, such as infractions reported, inpsections performed, EIA's reviewed and accepted/rejected, results of key monitoring (air quality, water quality, etc.). I am a big believer in the power of transparency in making regulators more accountable over time.

[Keith R]

The blog's listing of municipal environment officials has just been updated to include an entry for Santo Domingo Norte:

"Knocking on City Hall's Door" (updated)

[Keith R]

"Why the Enforcement Focus on Soils & Forests?"

[Keith R]

"Ranking the DR's Environmental Policy Performance"

[Keith R]

The entry "Why the Enforcement Focus on Soils & Forests", amended to add a picture and mpeg video from NASA that makes the point about deforestation on Hispanola in no uncertain terms.

[Keith R]

"Environmental Accountability for Mayors II: Sosua & Boca Chica"

Contrary, complementary and/or supplementary views and photos on the environmental performance of any Dominican municipality welcomed, just post them as comments to the blog or send them to greenteam@dr1.com Don't -- I repeat, don't -- post them here.

We'd particularly like to hear if

(a) you disagree with the views expressed so far on the National District (DN), Boca Chica, Sosua, Puerto Plata, Azua, Le Vega or Cabrera;

(b) you wish to offer opinions on the city environmental record for those municipalities in some area other than keeping the streets clean and garbage collected, such as keeping the sewers from backing up, or keeping dangerous installations from being built next to homes, or control of open burning, or keeping the right distance of high tension power lines from homes and stores, or controlling sound pollution...

(c) you wish to offer information on another municipality, such as Santiago, Bonao, San Cristobal, San Francisco de Macoris, Cabarete, Monte Crisiti, Bani, Cotui, Jarabacoa, Constanza, Samana, La Romana (chuckuindy -- how about you? ), Moca, Salcedo, Mao, Dajabon.

I've been promised some comments & pics for El Seibo, Santiago, San Pedro de Macoris. You guys know who you are -- hope you come through soon! But no one has a monopoly of opinion or input on any one city/town -- all input welcome!

[Keith R]

"An Environmental Disaster Waiting to Happen?"

Green Team member AlaninDR has turned in some awesome pics of the ship stranded just off the port and fort of Puerto Plata. A must see!

[Keith R]

"Power Plant Emissions in Puerto Plata"

[Geert]

Interesting Article.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0111/p01s03-sten.htm