VILLA MELLA.- To mark World Earth Day Tuesday, president Leonel Fernandez said the Dominican Government is committed to protect  the environment and natural resources.

He said fruit of that effort in his first term (1996-2000) an Environment and Natural Resources bill was signed into Law, which gave origin to the Ministry of the same name. "So in the Dominican government, we have given the highest category to undertake actions to benefit the environment and natural resources."

The Head of State said important actions are undertaken to protect the environment, such as the “Plan Quisqueya Verde," on reforestation, in which more than 30 million seedlings were planted, to save Dominican Republic’s rivers.

The agent chief executive, speaking in a farm owned by Arturo Parada, in Villa Mella, said the government, faced with the need for a territorial ordering law, works to draft and the approval of that bill and consults civil society sectors to reform the Protected Areas Law.