Technical Advisor to the Dominican Republic

Technical Advisor to the Dominican Republic

In the aftermath of Hurricane George (September 22, 1998), US AID / Dominican Republic developed a project whereby timber damaged from the storm would be salvaged and utilized for temporary provisional emergency housing needs. This housing was designed with the intent to get people as fast as possible out of government shelters and into a family situation until such time as the reconstruction phase took over to build more permanent structures. Various implementation methods were analyzed. In the end it was decided that the best model would be to directly work with the established Dominican Republic Forestry Agency, Foresta, in salvaging the damaged timber and to supply the sawn lumber to non-governmental organizations (NGO) for emergency housing needs. The two NGOs selected to work with AID were Instituto Dominicano Desarrollo Integral (IDDI) and FUNDASUR. The goal was to get as fast as possible as many temporary houses up as possible. A secondary goal, which came out of this project, was to give Foresta the opportunity to develop the necessary skills to manage the countries forest resource. This latter goal was important since over the last 30 years or so the policy of the Dominican Republic has been to not manage the forest resource. They have had more of an emphasis on a no-cut policy rather than conservation management. With a present shift in policy to conservation and long-term resource management within Foresta and the country there is a need for Foresta to acquire the skills necessary to properly manage their forest resources for both the short and long term.

The site selected to salvage was on National lands located approximately 45 minutes north of Santo Domingo. This 1400-hectare site was an old sugar cane plantation and cattle ranch, which was planted under the auspices of United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) to Caribbean pine (Pinus caribaea). The sugar cane was grown on the lower more "gentle" slopes while the steeper upper slopes were utilized as pasture. The area is composed of two separate sites, both of which are mountainous (Loma Novillero and Loma Catarey). The plantations vary in age with Catarey being the oldest site and planted between 1974 through 1978. The Novillero site, which is steeper, had plantings ranging from 1982 through 1986, with the west side being the oldest planting sites and the east side being the youngest. There were also plantings that occurred as recently as 1991 around the southeast section of the Novillero site. The timber size ranges from 3 inches to 16 inches at diameter at breast height (DBH). The material that is being utilized from these plantations is sawlogs, poles (honches) and post (vares). The specifications for each product was : sawlogs minimum diameter at the small end 7 inches with various lengths; pole diameter at the small end 5-8 inches and lengths of 10-14 feet; post diameter at the small end between 3-5 inches and lengths of 14 to 22 feet. The pole timber is used in erecting pole buildings as well as used for roofing trusses. The posts are used in roofing. Values for these products vary by product. Sawn lumber goes for $8RD per board foot and poles sell for various prices depending on the size with a minimum price of $40RD per pole.

USAID purchased two Woodmizer sawmills, one Ford 7810 New Holland double traction farm tractor, one trailer to haul logs, and various other forestry related equipment such as winches, chainsaws, cables etc. at a value of $2,846,400RD. In exchange for this equipment Foresta was to supply wood harvested and sawn for emergency housing. From the inception of the project through December 31, 1999 Foresta supplied 448,497.59 board feet (BF) of lumber to the NGOs. The value of this wood is $3,587,980.70RD or $224,248.79US (all dollar conversions throughout this report are at a $16RD to $1US rate of exchange). Total production through December 31, 1999 from the 4 sawmills (2 AID mills & 2 other mills) located at the site was 1,546,917.60 BF.

The intent of this trip was to do a final technical review of the logging site to see if management practices were implemented to meet generally accepted environmental guidelines, and secondly to assess the effectiveness of the project approach taken by AID. The AID approach model used a damaged natural resource to an advantage by developing temporary houses for those made homeless in a devastating hurricane. The analysis of the effectiveness of this approach will also look at recommendation if any on how to better utilize this unique approach. Hopefully, this will serve the purpose in giving insight into how best to proceed in the event of another natural disaster in the Dominican Republic, or anywhere else in the world with similar conditions.

This report is in two sections. The first gives an overview of the technical aspect of this trip while the second tries to take an objective look at the overall project and analyze whether it should be the model for future similar projects when appropriate.

I. Technical Trip Review

Scope of Review :

The technical trip reviewed the following objectives :

• Assessment of Current Status of Project Area
• Erosion Control
• Reforestation
• Salvageable Volume Time Frames
• Structural Soundness of Wood on Existing Homes
• Management Plans
• PROCARYN Project & Political View on Timber Management

To see the resume of the expert associated with this case study, see the link below.