Rivers, dams and forests designated as environmental assets requiring state protection

The Dominican government has placed the country’s main water infrastructure and key ecosystems under special protection through Decree 615-26, invoking the fight against what it calls “environmental terrorism.”

President Luis Abinader based the decree’s second article on Law 267-08 on Terrorism. The law identifies water-sector infrastructure and ecosystems considered strategic for national security.

The infrastructure listed in the decree includes dams, reservoirs, lakes, main irrigation canals, aqueducts and water-treatment plants. The measure focuses particularly on protected areas.

The decree also designates priority watersheds, aquifers, mangroves, wetlands, coral reefs, protective forests and river sources as environmental assets requiring special protection. It extends that designation to other ecosystems whose serious degradation could threaten the country’s water, food, environmental or economic security.